Chris Elliott on fighting food fraud

The Life Scientific

BBC

Technology, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2023

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Professor Chris Elliott is something of a ‘food detective’. A Professor of Food Safety and Microbiology at Queen's University Belfast and a founding director of its Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS), his work is all about developing scientific solutions to protect us from contaminated food, be it accidental or criminal. Following the 2013 horse meat scandal – when prepared foods purporting to be made from beef were found to contain undeclared horse-meat – Chris conducted the independent review of the UK food system that brought to light the growing threat of food crime. Since then, his name’s become synonymous with solving cases of food fraud; today he receives regular tip-offs on everything from oregano scams to dodgy potatoes. But as Chris tells Jim Al-Khalili, his team at the IGFS are pioneering new techniques to read the molecular fingerprint of foodstuffs, with technology that they hope will stop the fraudsters in their tracks… Producer: Lucy Taylor

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself.
0:03.7	My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a load of sport podcasts.
0:08.4	I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with a leading journalist, experienced
0:12.2	pundits and the biggest sport stars.
0:14.3	Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the players'
0:18.5	mouths.
0:19.5	But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sport world.
0:25.0	What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection to
0:28.8	dedicated sports fans across the UK.
0:31.2	So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more.
0:40.4	Welcome to the podcast edition of The Life Scientific.
0:43.5	I'm Jim Alkelele and this is the show where I get to talk with some of the world's leading
0:47.9	scientists so you can find out about their remarkable work and what drives them.
0:53.0	In this episode, we're digging into the lucrative world of food crime with a scientist who's
0:57.8	made it his life's work to scupper fraudsters such as those behind the 2013 horsemeat scam
1:04.5	and to ensure what we're eating is what it says it is.
1:09.0	Bon appétit.
1:10.6	Hello, how do we know we can trust the food we eat?
1:14.6	Whether you're sprinkling dried herbs into a stew or tucking into a ready-made lasagna,
1:19.8	how can you be sure the product you've bought is what it says it is?
1:24.0	Or indeed that it's safe, because that oregano could just be much cheaper crushed olive leaves
1:29.1	and the beef rugu could be, well, horsemeat, or of course they could potentially contain something far worse.
	...

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