"Let's go." "'Us Brits love our grub." "'And our shops and supermarkets are stacked high 'with food from all over the world.'" "Whoa!" "'But how do we really know about where our food comes from?" "'" "I've come to ask you how dangerous my nuts are." "'We'll be travelling far and wide...'" " Woo-hoo-hoo." " Look how high up we are." "'.. to reveal the truth about the food we eat.'" "That is not as I would expect at all." "'Coming up..." "'MSG has a bad reputation." "Does it deserve it?" "'I'm in Thailand to find out.'" "Would you have salt, pepper, a pot of MSG?" "'I reveal there could be more to brazil nuts than meets the eye.'" "Does that mean that our brazil nuts are radioactive?" "'And I discover how a wild flower is turned into 'one of our favourite soft drinks.'" " We leave it for a secret amount of time." " A secret amount?" "First up, monosodium glutamate, or MSG to its friends." "We often associate it with takeaway food, but MSG is also found in a whole host of store-cupboard staples." "I just had a question about an ingredient that I've spotted in a few products that you sell." "It's called monosu..." "Whoops, I can't even say it." "I was wondering if you could tell me what MSG is." "It's been a while since I've heard that." "It's addictive, I would say." " Is it?" " Apparently so." "It's used to enhance flavour in food, but what on earth is it?" " This is something called MSG." "You ever heard of it?" " Oh, right, yeah." "You pulled a face there." "Why did you pull a face?" " When you have a Chinese and you get that Chinese jitters." " You do." "I'm told it was the MSG." " With a name like that, it can't be natural." " I think it's dangerous." "'In the West, MSG has had a bad rep for decades." "'It's often blamed for causing Chinese restaurant syndrome." "'Symptoms are claimed to include headaches, 'flushing and even heart palpitations." "'Food manufacturers regularly announce 'they're removing the stuff from their food." "'But if it's so bad, why is it still in our food?" "'I'm heading east, to Thailand...'" "Woo-hoo-hoo." "'.. where MSG has a rather different reputation.'" "So, first night in Bangkok." "I'm eager to have some street food." "This stuff looks really good." " Yeah, maybe we can have this chicken noodle." " Looks amazing." "So something as basic as a simple chicken noodle soup, has that got MSG in?" "Yeah." "And so is it really commonplace then?" "Would you have, in the average type of kitchen, salt, pepper, a pot of MSG?" "Yes, of course." "It's interesting, because back home MSG would definitely be on the bad boy list of foods, but this chicken soup, it's absolutely delicious." "It's good, right?" "Really good." "'I've come to a factory on the outskirts of Bangkok which 'makes this intriguing food additive.'" "I've got to tell you, I've been to lots of factories in my time." "This has got to be one of the biggest I've ever, ever seen." "It's colossal." "'The Ajinomoto corporation pumps out half a million tonnes of MSG every year." "'That's a quarter of the world's production.'" " Hi there." " Hello." "'Mr Oh is the factory manager.'" "He-he-he." "Let go." "'All this complicated pipework makes me 'think they're using some pretty fancy chemicals here." "'First stop is a workhouse where they store the key ingredient of MSG.'" "Wow." "What's in here?" " Tapioca starch?" " Yes." " So you use tapioca to make MSG?" " Yes." "See, most people in the UK, tapioca," " we have as a pudding at school." " Oh." "So where does the tapioca come from then?" "'So a pudding ingredient we eat in the UK is key to making MSG." "'Who'd have thought it?" "'They use tapioca flour because it's high in sugar-rich starch." "'The first stage in the process is to mix the flour with water 'and bacteria in these giant vats.'" "It looks like a spaceship." "What's going on here?" "'It's a centuries-old process, using bacteria 'and sugar to create a fermentation." "'To help me get a closer look at the next step," "'I'm meeting in-house scientist, Dr Toey." " Dr Toey." "Great, so you're going to show me more about MSG in the lab?" " Yeah, of course." " Brilliant." " Yes, come with me." "'The fermentation process produces glutamic acid." "'To turn this into MSG now requires a series of chemical reactions.'" "'The solution is sterilised and then dried." "'The powder formed contains glutamate -- 'the "G" in MSG." "'Water is added and then sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda." "'This monosodium is there to carry the glutamate, 'making it easy to sprinkle MSG over food." "'The solution is then filtered to get rid of its colour...'" "Oh, here we go." "Look at that." "'.. and finally heated so it forms crystals." "'Hey presto, we've created MSG.'" "It's taken a lot of work to fish you out." "I feel like I'm in Breaking Bad." "SHE LAUGHS" "'So MSG is derived from a natural product." "'But are these little white crystals really safe for me to eat?" "'Later, I head back to the UK to find out.'" "Do you think monosodium glutamate deserves all the bad press it's had?" "Next, brazil nuts." "Now, I know that almonds grow on trees and peanuts grow underground." "But I've got absolutely no idea how brazil nuts grow." "Now, brazil nuts, the name suggests that they all come from Brazil." "Is that right?" "Ours are from Naples in Italy." "Gosh, that's a surprise, isn't it?" "They must have the weather and everything for them." "I wonder if you could grow them, I don't know, in the south of England?" "Possibly, if you had the right greenhouse you might be able to." "Brazil nuts in my greenhouse?" "Hello." "It would be pretty good, yeah." "When Food Unwrapped HQ told me that I'd be doing a story about these, I automatically thought, "Ah, Brazil."" "We are not in Brazil." "Have a little look out this window." "It is incredible." "We're flying over the Andes." "My destination is Peru, which, along with neighbouring" "Bolivia and Brazil, produce almost all the world's Brazil nuts." "Hola." "Benjamin." "'My guide Benjamin is taking me deep into remote rainforest." "'Brazil nuts, or castania, as they're called here, remarkably, aren't farmed.'" "'The world's entire crop grows wild in the jungle, 'and reaching them is no walk in the park.'" "We've just climbed a mega hill." "I'm absolutely dripping." "Ah, yeah, you're pretty good." " HE SPEAKS SPANISH..." " You're used to this." "And we still haven't yet seen a brazil nut." "'After trekking for a couple of hours, 'we finally come across what we're looking for.'" "Is that the tree?" "Oh, my goodness." "This, I think, is perhaps the tallest tree I've ever seen in my life." "'These magnificent trees can live for over 1,000 years 'and grow up to 70 metres tall.'" "It's almost a skyscraper, that's absolutely huge." "Nico from the local village has been collecting in this area since he was a boy." "Hello, Nico." "So we need a helmet." "This is dangerous work." "And so this is it." "This is the brazil nut?" "HE SPEAKS SPANISH" "It doesn't look like a brazil nut that I'm used to." "There they are." "It's like segments in an orange." "'Each of these wild trees can produce up to 3,500 nuts a year." "'But the trees are scattered randomly through the jungle, 'which makes collecting tough work." "'I just don't understand why they aren't farmed.'" "So why is it so difficult to grow brazil nuts?" "The agouti is an Amazonian rodent, and is the only animal with teeth sharp enough to gnaw through the tough outer wall and release the nuts." "It eats some immediately, but buries others, so every now and then, a forgotten nut grows into a new tree." "And the agouti isn't the only animal vital to the brazil nut's survival." "'The euglossine bee is the only species that pollinates brazil nut flowers.'" "So you need a super bee and you also need an animal called an agouti." "'Brazil nuts are part of a complex yet fragile ecosystem." "The huge trees also need the Amazon's deep, nutrient-rich soil to support their long roots." "'But I found out that this soil contains small 'amounts of naturally occurring radioactive material.'" "So, Benjamin has told me that the root network is so extensive that it absorbs so many minerals, including radium." "So if the roots are absorbing radium, does that mean that our brazil nuts are radioactive?" "Later, I send Matt on some risky business." "I've come to ask you how dangerous my nuts are." "Every year I make my own elderflower cordial using wild elderflowers." "And it seems I'm not the only one to enjoy this summer drink, as sales have doubled in the last five years." "But how do producers make sure they have enough wild elderflowers to meet demand?" "So I've come to beautiful Lincolnshire to find out how the pros make their elderflower cordial." "'Pev Manners has been making the stuff for over 30 years.'" "Nice to meet you." "Pev, right?" "'Last year, Pev shifted a whopping 1.5 million bottles.'" "Here we are." "Here's some elderflowers growing in rows." " So this is cultivated, right?" " This is cultivated." "These are planted, yeah." "'To keep up with demand, 'he's created one of the few elderflower farms in the country.'" " We planted this field about 15 years ago." " Are they quite easy to plant?" "No, they're not that easy, actually." "It took us a long time to work out that you actually have to do quite a lot of TLC." " Do you, sort of, grow them a certain height or keep them down?" " We prune them." "So these ones were pruned two years ago." " Right, we'd better get picking then." " Come on." "Let's go and pick, then." "I'll show you how it's done." "And we have to get them in." "What you do is you pull them down and just rip the flowers off," " one after the other." " OK." " And you want the flowers, not these little buds?" " Don't want the buds." " That's for next week." " Beautiful smell." "They're absolutely covered in this pollen." "Yeah, this is what makes the flavour, the lovely yellow pollen." "'For maximum pollen and flavour, the flowers have to be picked 'while they're in full bloom." "'But that only lasts for 12 hours, so timing is crucial.'" " So how many people do you employ to pick during the season?" " Not one." " Really?" " We don't employ any pickers at all." " So how does that work?" "What we did, about 15 years ago, we advertised for people to bring us flowers." " Right." " And the response was huge." "'Pev depends upon local pickers to gather his harvest." "'There are usually around 200 of them." "'They can turn up whenever they like, pick as much as the like, 'and get paid by the kilo for their troubles.'" "What happens when they don't turn up," " or they can't be bothered or it's raining?" " It is a bit chaotic." "We have a backstop." "If we haven't got enough, we can buy frozen flowers on the market and blend that in." "But we haven't needed to the last two years." "Last year we had 51 tonnes of flowers brought to us." " It's 100 Transit vans full of flowers." " Wow." "It's a great business model that helps keep costs down." "'Coming up, I discover it's no easy task turning wild flowers 'into cordial.' Is that your lowest today?" "Yes." "That's what the children pick on a Saturday." "Kate sends Matt to see if brazil nuts really are radioactive." "And I discover a surprising fact about the glutamate in MSG." "The first experience you'll have is through your mother's breast milk." "You're joking." "I'm with farmer Pev Manners to find out how he's meeting our growing thirst for elderflower cordial." "Pev relies on locals to bring the harvest to his factory." "As well as the cultivated crop in his fields, pickers also bring him elderflowers they forage from roadsides, farmyards and footpaths." "This is Chris and Vicky bringing flowers in." "Do you know these guys?" " Yeah, they used to go picking with my mum 20 years ago." " Really?" " You're covered in pollen." " Yeah, this is it." "Either that or you've got jaundice. [HE LAUGHS]" "You can't tell sometimes." "It gets very yellow." "'It's weighing in time, which means rush hour, 'as Pev pays his pickers £2 a kilo.'" "So what are you expecting?" "80, 100." " What is it?" " 105. - 105." " So that's pretty good." " Pretty good guess." "'Elderflowers blossom from late May for up to six weeks, 'when the pickers can earn up to £150 a day." "'So how much is my bag worth?" "£3.70!" "Wahey!" "Nearly two kilos." " Is that you're lowest today?" " Yes." "That's what the children pick on a Saturday." "All right." "'Pev's elderflower cordial is made from a recipe that his mum 'used to make in her kitchen." "'Pev's factory is an altogether bigger business.'" "Let's go and put our elderflowers in one of these vats." "There's Phyllis, she's putting syrup into one of the vats." "Hi, Phyllis." "HE LAUGHS" " What am I going to do with this lot then?" " Put it in there." "Felicity's turning the stirrers on." "We've got sugar syrup and lemon juice in there and a tiny bit of citric acid." "It does seem like an awful lot of flower compared with the amount of liquid." "So you're not going to top the liquid up at all?" "I don't know." "I don't know what Phyllis has done in this batch, so I'm not quite sure." " It'll go all the way up to here by the time it's finished." " Really?" " Yep." "'Each of these vats contain a ton of elderflowers, and during 'the season there are seven of these vats constantly on the go.'" "And how long does it take for the elderflower to sit in here and infuse?" "We leave it for a secret amount of time, but it's at least..." "A secret amount of time?" " A secret amount of time." " I leave mine at home for 24 hours." " I think we use a little bit longer." " OK." "'Elderflower cordial is a fast growing business." "'This year, us Brits are predicted to drink 46 million litres 'of the stuff, worth over £25 million.'" "So this is the flash pasteurizer." "'So Pev's cordial is pasteurised, 'put into barrels and frozen to ensure a year-round supply.'" "Mmm." "That's really good." "Absolutely delicious." "It tastes a lot like mine." "'Earlier, I learned that brazil nuts grow completely wild 'across the Amazon.' There they are." "'I've also discovered that the roots of these trees can absorb 'radioactive material." "'It sounds pretty dangerous, so I've asked Matt, back in the UK, 'to do some digging." "'But I want to find out how brazil nuts 'are prepped for our supermarket shelves." "'I'm in Puerto Maldonado visiting a brazil nut cooperative.'" " Hello." "Kate." " Wilma." "'Wilma is the manager here." "'She runs one of the biggest factories in the area.'" "So it is an army that get your nuts out of their shells." "But it's not agoutis, it's people." "Oh!" "'Every single nut is shelled by hand using levered weights." "'It's delicate, precise work." "'Isidro is the most experienced nutcracker on the team.'" "'Brazil nuts are an important part of the local economy." "'These workers earn the equivalent of 40 pence per kilo." "'Isidro can get through as many as 10,000 nuts in a shift, 'which earns him a wage of around?" "10 per day." "'I'm amazed that such a seemingly simple job is being done by hand.'" "Hola." "Kate." "'Perhaps Freddie, the quality control manager, can explain why.'" "Is there any way of shelling brazil nuts mechanically?" "'And us Brits like our brazil nuts whole." "'Next, the moisture is removed to stop mould developing.'" "Gosh, that's hot." "Hot nuts." "'And finally, these nuts are ready to be exported to supermarkets around the world." "All the work it takes in the rainforest, with all the environmental factors, in order to produce this, for me, these are the caviar of the rainforest." "'So, brazil nuts grow wild in the jungle, 'but could they be radioactive?" "'To find out, I've pulled in a favour.'" "So I had a phone call from Kate the other day, who was in Peru, who wanted me to come to Didcot, in Britain, to find out whether these brazil nuts that she's looking at, in Peru, are radioactive." "I'm in Didcot." "'I've come to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, 'a cutting edge facility that's home to some of the UK's most 'advanced scientific research projects.'" " Hi, Suzie." " Hi." " Nice to meet you." " Hi, Matt." "So I've come to ask you how dangerous my nuts are." "'Dr Suzie Sheehy is a physicist 'and researcher at Oxford University." "'She's been testing the radiation levels in all types of food, 'and the impact it has on our bodies." "'So how radioactive are my nuts?" "'" "Now, if you listen carefully, you will hear a couple of clicks." "SLOW CLICKING" "Brazil nuts actually do give off radiation," " so they could be harmful to your health." " OK." "But the level that it gives off is very, very low." " Like an X-ray?" " Yeah." " Or..." " So, for example,..." " .. a small nuclear explosion?" ".. that's about 100 grams of brazil nuts, right?" "So the amount of radiation dose you'd receive from those" " is about the same as having a chest X-ray." " Really?" " Yeah." "You'd have to eat 25,000 brazil nuts in one sitting in order to have any ill health effect from the radiation." "So we're quite safe to carry on eating brazil nuts, albeit in small quantities?" "From the radiation, I think you can eat as many of them as you could stomach." "'Earlier, I learnt that monosodium glutamate, 'or MSG, is made from safe and natural ingredients.'" " So you use cassava to make MSG?" " Yeah." "'But will eating it do me any harm?" "'I've come to Reading University to find out." "'Dr Lisa Methven is an expert in flavour and taste.'" " Hi there." " Hi, good to see you." " Good to see you." "Now, I heard you're going to help me with MSG?" "That's right." "Is it safe to eat?" "Well, the thing to remember about glutamate is that, actually, it's naturally present in foods." "The glutamate in MSG, is that a different glutamate?" "No, it's exactly the same." "And in fact, you experience glutamate really early in life, so the first experience you'll have is through" " your mother's breast milk." " You're joking." " So you get glutamate through your mum's breast milk?" " Yeah, yeah." "'So, in fact, glutamate occurs 'naturally in virtually every type of food.'" "So some things that are particularly high in glutamate are some of the cheeses." "So we've got some Parmesan cheese and some blue cheese over here." "The levels in vegetables can be quite high as well, so you've got some examples in potatoes and peas here." "These are low levels of glutamate in comparison to your cheese." "'So not only is flavour enhancing glutamate found in cheese and veg, it's also added to loads of everyday foods, from stock cubes to dried noodles." "It seems now that something I grew up with, monosodium glutamate, as almost being the devil's work, is actually, after looking at the factory and talking to you, finding out that glutamate is actually quite natural." "Do you think monosodium glutamate deserves all the bad press it's had?" "I don't think it does, to be honest." "There is an argument that if you concentrate it, maybe you need to consider then the levels at which it's safe to have." "So glutamate naturally occurring, not really a problem." "But when it's an additive, like monosodium glutamate, you should use the same sort of wisdom as you do when using table salt or something like that?" "Exactly." "And at that point, you're using it within the right levels within the food." "'There have been more than 80 scientific studies into MSG 'over the last 30 years." "'And the overwhelming consensus is that MSG is safe to eat.'" "So it would appear that MSG doesn't deserve such a bad reputation." "If it's eaten in moderation then it's safe." "'Next time, I find out the catastrophic effect 'of not having enough vitamin D.'" " He's walking very bow-legged, isn't he?" " Yeah, yeah." "'But just how do they add it to so many of our foods?" "'" " It's worth more than gold." " Sure." "Oh!" "'I'm in Switzerland to ask why they put holes in their cheese.'" "It's the bits missing that make the cheese." "'And I investigate how supermarkets 'can sell posh Wagyu beefburgers at knock-down prices.'" "FIRE ALARM" "Never invite Matt Tebbutt round to cook."