The Food Chain

Vegetarian and vegan food companies are under attack for using words like ‘burger', ‘sausage’, or ‘steak’ to describe their meat-free products. The meat industry and some politicians argue such words can only be used to describe foods that came from an animal and that plant-based alternatives should come up with new names to avoid consumer confusion. But can you really claim ownership of a word? A...

How powerful can a steaming pile of rotting food be? One third of the world’s food is lost or wasted, greenhouse emissions are warming our planet, and about a third of the world’s soil is degraded. Composting our food waste can help with all of this. But does it make economic sense and does it deserve it’s moniker ‘black gold’? Emily Thomas meets people in the compost business to ask whether compo...

It’s a dream shared by many a food lover - a restaurant of their very own. A showcase for their skill and creativity. A passion that also pays the bills. But are aspiring restaurateurs always aware of just how difficult the restaurant trade can be? Is food is the most dangerous passion to have when it comes to business? Emily Thomas meets three cooks in Abuja, Toronto, and London, and hears how th...

Millions of children in India risk being deprived of a good education because of hunger. Poverty means they often go to school on an empty stomach, making it hard for them to concentrate, and malnutrition can mean they don’t even make it to the classroom – they either cannot face the journey or need to work to buy food for their families. But over the last 20 years Akshaya Patra has been trying to...

The world faces a daunting challenge - how to feed a growing population without harming the planet, our economies, or our health. With a billion people still going hungry, obesity and diabetes on the rise, and warnings of a climate change emergency, how can we change our food system for the better? Emily Thomas meets four remarkable people and projects trying to meet that challenge, from cheap and...

The award-winning star of Netflix series 'Salt, Fat, Acid Heat' and author of the best-selling cookbook of the same name tells us about her life through five of her most memorable dishes. The Iranian-American writer and cook has enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame in the last few years, but has struggled to come to terms with that success and says she still feels like an impostor and outsider. She ver...

Could candy be the next target in the global fight against rising levels of obesity and diabetes? Dozens of governments have already imposed taxes on sugary drinks, and now some are considering doing the same with sweets. So how worried are confectionery companies and what can they do about it? How do you replace or even reduce candy’s key component, and can you do so without causing upset? We hea...

How do you eat when you have no home? Nowhere to store food, nowhere to cook, no table to eat at? In this episode we are with homeless people in two of the world’s most prosperous cities - London and Los Angeles - to talk about how they feed themselves. This is a tale of two cities - a surprising story perhaps of the abundance of food in the most deprived parts of society. What does it tell us abo...

At heart, the organic movement is driven by ethics, not market-forces. It started out as a reaction to large-scale industrial agriculture, with an anti-establishment vibe which abhorred mass produced, processed food. But, as demand for organic products has grown, big business has moved in, and now accounts for an increasing amount of the market. Big Food has money and clout. It can support farmers...

In the second of two James Beard Award-winning episodes on food and grief, Emily Thomas explores the food experiences of the widowed. In parts of the world where widowhood is seen as a source of shame, widows might be excluded from mealtimes, forbidden from eating nourishing food, and even forced to take part in degrading eating rituals. And even in some of the world's most developed countries, wh...

Emily Thomas explores how food can help us navigate through the darkest of times - the days, weeks, and even years following the death of someone we loved. In times of loss, should we use food to remember the dead or to reconnect with them? A neurologist explains the science behind grief and appetite, and people who've been recently bereaved talk about the foods and eating rituals that have helped...

Do you know who’s washing your dishes? Emily Thomas talks to pot washers from around the world, about what they love and loathe about life at the sink. A kitchen can’t survive without the pot washer, yet we rarely give them a second thought, lavishing all our attention instead on the chefs. But maybe we should. Being a pot washer, dishwasher or kitchen porter as it’s variably known, can be the fir...

Restaurateurs with guns, chefs wielding knives, and severed heads in bin bags. Life as a food inspector is a lot more fraught than you might think. Emily Thomas meets three food safety officers from around the globe who reveal what it’s like to be one of the most feared people in the industry. They have the power to close a restaurant. Some can even make arrests. No wonder they’ve got some stories...

What happens when food meets fiction? In this programme from the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival, presenter Emily Thomas is joined by a panel of guests and an audience to find out how poems, plays and novels can help us better understand our food, and also how food can be used as a narrative device. Poet and novelist Ben Okri, farmer and author Suzanna Crampton, and playwright and former scrip...

There are trillions of bacteria living in our guts and there's growing evidence that they can have a major impact on our mental well-being. So could we soon see a food supplement that can treat depression? The science behind this so-called gut-brain axis and whether we can manipulate it isn't yet conclusive, but there are plenty of believers. We speak to a woman who says her irritable bowel syndro...

Breastfeeding is highly recommended for babies the world over and in many countries it's seen as a mother's duty. No wonder, then, that women who cannot or choose not to breastfeed can feel ashamed, inadequate, or even irresponsible. But it turns out that these women are actually the majority. According to figures from the World Health Organisation only 41 per cent of babies are exclusively breast...

How does a tiny community living on a series of rugged, windswept islands in the south west Atlantic Ocean manage to eat a varied diet? The Falkland Islands have more sheep than people, and its waters are teaming with squid, but fresh fruit and vegetables are very hard to come by. And when it does arrive, almost all of it by sea, it’s not at all cheap – a pineapple, for example, can cost up to $20...

Why do some fruits and vegetables achieve superstar status, appearing on T-shirts worn by celebrities, or in tattoos adorning some of the biggest names in music? Who is behind the rise of avocados and kale, and who benefits most from their A-list status - savvy farmers, slick marketeers or health campaigners? Emily Thomas explores whether fruit and vegetables should play the fame game: Is putting...

Are processed foods and urbanisation numbing children’s sensory abilities, and should we teach them to smell, touch, taste and even listen to their food to improve their diets and self-awareness? Emily Thomas meets three people from different parts of the world who work in ‘sensory food education’, which encourages children to explore all aspects of a food. They want young people to be taught thes...

The Rohingya people in Myanmar and the Uighur people in China are familiar to many of us through news reports. And usually their story is told by journalists in sombre voices reporting on the political situation or alleged human rights abuses. But in this episode, Rohingas and Uighurs themselves will tell us another story - about their cuisine. Because when you are far from home, feel your culture...

What drives people to stake their livelihood on sponge? Three cake makers discuss the pressure and privilege of creating show-stopping centrepieces for major celebrations. From a perfect replica of a cow to a cake hanging from the ceiling, they reveal the engineering and money that go into some of the most formidable bakes. Emily Thomas meets Claire Ptak, owner of Violet Cakes, who made the cake a...

André Cointreau had a very privileged start in life, born into two illustrious French drinks dynasties - Cointreau and Rémy Martin. But his decision to buy a food business didn't go down well with the whole family. Unperturbed, he went on to become the chief executive of Le Cordon Bleu, transforming a small Parisian cookery school into a global culinary empire that has trained some of the world's...

Carving up carcasses and slicing up flesh. Day in, day out. Doling out blood for pet leeches, and helpings of animals brains. What drives people to do it? And why do they see themselves as animal lovers, and therapists? Emily Thomas meets three butchers from Limerick, Lagos and Brooklyn to find out what it’s really like to be a butcher. Why is the trade disparaged in some parts of the world? And w...

When a cool character cracks open a can of a well-known branded drink on screen, do you barely notice or roll your eyes? Whatever your reaction, their choices may well be influencing yours. Food is a powerful narrative device in film and product placement is highly lucrative. Put the two together and show business becomes big business for the food industry. Emily Thomas finds out how the product p...

Giving away unwanted food to people who need it, sounds like it should be easy. But in this episode we find it throws up some peculiar challenges. What do you do with 12,000 cakes, or vast amounts of unwanted crocodile meat? Over the past few years food banks have been opening up in places they have never been seen before, from some of the world’s richest cities to its poorest slums. But are they...