The BEST episodes of Food Unwrapped
Every episode of Food Unwrapped ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Food Unwrapped!
The food and science series that travels the world to explore the industry secrets behind our favourite produce, industry secrets, and how foods are really made.
#2 - Bananas, Plant Meat, Crisps
Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/8/2016
Jimmy visits Ecuador, the largest banana exporter in the world, to investigate remarkable claims that the banana could one day be used in the fight against a number of viruses including HIV and influenza. Kate goes in search of the food industry's Holy Grail: a meat substitute that actually tastes of meat. Scientists in the Netherlands have developed a product called 'plant meat', but does it taste like the real thing? Can these vegetarian steaks, chicken pieces and sausage rolls fool the taste buds of three meat-loving barbecue chefs? What are those green bits you find on some crisps, and are they safe to eat? To find out, Matt visits one of Britain's largest crisp manufacturers, where he sees the high-tech machinery employed to weed out the green ones before they hit our crisp packets.
Watch Now:Amazon#3 - Tofu, Ready Meals, Milk
Season 7 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/1/2016
Kate Quilton heads to Japan on the trail of tofu, wondering how green soy beans are turned into something so white and creamy. Jimmy Doherty investigates reports that supermarket ready meals have nearly doubled in size since the 1950s. He tracks down the ready meals of his childhood and discovers whether bigger plate sizes could also be causing people to eat more. Plus, in Wales, Matt Tebbutt looks into a new kind of milk, which it is claimed is easier to digest.
Watch Now:Amazon
#4 - Coconut Oil, Artichokes, Absinthe
Season 8 - Episode 5 - Aired 6/6/2016
Kate Quilton learns how coconut oil is extracted in Vietnam before heading to the English seaside, where she commandeers a mobile chip van to find out which oil is the healthiest. Jimmy Doherty is in Italy to find out what goes into a supermarket jar of artichoke hearts, while Matt Tebbutt discovers whether absinthe can really lead to hallucinations and madness.
Watch Now:Amazon
#7 - Bell Peppers, Leeks, Manuka Honey
Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/30/2016
Jimmy Doherty takes to the skies above Israel as he joins the battle to protect the bell pepper crop from the Mediterranean fruit fly, while Kate Quilton investigates premium-priced manuka honey, which is marketed for its anti-bacterial properties. Matt Tebbutt visits the UK's largest leek producer, where he's shocked by how much of the vegetable goes to waste, but amazed by a mobile factory on wheels that can process 60,000 leeks a day.
Watch Now:Amazon
#8 - Marmalade, Fish, Goat
Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 5/23/2016
Jimmy Doherty heads to the Spanish city of Seville to look for the mysterious ingredient that gives marmalade its bitter tang, while Kate Quilton meets an entrepreneur who has developed an ecosystem that could revolutionise the future of fish farming. Matt Tebbutt hits the streets to see how billy goat meat goes down with the British public.
Watch Now:Amazon
#9 - Pepper, Yeast, Crisps
Season 8 - Episode 2 - Aired 5/16/2016
Kate Quilton visits Vietnam, where a global surge in demand for pepper has transformed the lives of farmers across the country. She learns the difference between black and white varieties and the secrets of peppercorn quality control, and discovers the remarkable lengths to which producers go to guard their valuable crop from thieves. Jimmy Doherty meets a man whose job entails harvesting different strains of yeast from locations around the world and Matt Tebbutt looks into how manufacturers flavour crisps.
Watch Now:Amazon#10 - Salt, Hens, Haggis
Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/25/2016
Jimmy Doherty heads to Sicily, where a vast network of tunnels leads to a subterranean salt-processing plant. Kate Quilton looks at free range hens, and is surprised to learn that most chicks on British farms have their beaks trimmed at birth. In the Netherlands, she visits a new cutting-edge farm designed using the latest scientific advances in hen welfare. Plus, in Scotland, Matt Tebbutt makes a surprising discovery about the origins of haggis, and then faces the ordeal of delivering some unwelcome news to an unsuspecting audience.
Watch Now:Amazon
#14 - Cashew, Scampi and Salt
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 6/17/2013
The team ask: Why are cashew nuts never on the supermarket shelf in their shells? What exactly is scampi? Does expensive salt taste different to cheap salt? Kate Quilton heads into the Mozambique countryside to find out why - unlike walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds - cashews aren't sold in their shells. She learns that cracking a cashew nut in its shell can do serious harm and getting a cashew safe to handle is a huge process. But the team also discover that an extract from the shell can have an extremely high value and could potentially be of great use to medical science and the war against superbugs. Jimmy Doherty's voyage of discovery to find out more about pub-favourite scampi and its processed cousin scampi bites gets off to a stormy start as he's sea sick on a Scottish trawler. He soon discovers that not all scampi is made equal. After carrying out DNA tests on a range of scampi products, Jimmy finds a surprising foreign body in this great British classic that takes him to some unexpected places. And why pay 20 times more for one type of salt than another? Matt Tebbutt learns how sea salt is harvested and finds out if the difference in taste is worth the price.
Watch Now:Amazon
#15 - Sausages and Ice-Cream
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/5/2012
Matt Tebbutt travels to Sweden to learn how a food company uses liquid smoke to flavour sausages, a method that is cheaper and quicker and enables flavours to be tailored more effectively. The Food Standards Agency requires that ice-cream needs to contain milk protein and any kind of fat - vegetable being the one most commonly used. Martin Dickie and James Watt head to Brighton beach with an old-fashioned bicycle adorned with banners saying `Ice Vegetable Oil'. What will the public make of this product?
Watch Now:Amazon
#17 - Milking It
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/10/2014
Kate visits France to find out if a glass of red wine a day keeps the doctor away. Venison is traditionally the meat of kings. This lean, healthy meat has become hugely popular over the last decade. Jimmy investigates why we seem to be importing some of it from New Zealand and discovers how to keep UK venison on our supermarket shelves. Matt lifts the lid on skimmed milk. How do dairy farmers get exactly the right amount of fat in every pint of milk?
Watch Now:Amazon
#18 - Wasabi Plant
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/3/2014
Jimmy gives supermarket fish a sniff to discover how fresh the stock really is. Kate investigates how asparagus can be grown all year round in one of the driest places on earth - the Ica Valley in Peru. Matt travels to a secret location to track down UK-grown wasabi plants, managing to sting his nostrils in the process.
Watch Now:Amazon
#19 - Caviar Conversation
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/24/2014
Jimmy investigates whether manuka honey has any medicinal properties. Kate discovers why some varieties of caviar are so much cheaper than others. Matt visits a Scottish distillery to find out the surprising truth about what gives whisky its distinctive flavour.
Watch Now:Amazon
#20 - Caffeine, Gum and Diet Bread
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/8/2013
How is caffeine removed from coffee? What puts the chew into chewing gum? How are the calories counted in diet bread? Jimmy Doherty visits Brazil to find out more about coffee beans and to try to find a naturally grown caffeine-free coffee. Kate Quilton heads to Finland to find out what makes chewing gum so chewy and if it is safe to swallow. At a giant chemical plant she learns that many of the ingredients found in some of our gums can also be found in car tyres and other unlikely products. Matt Tebbutt counts the calories in diet bread. It looks and tastes similar but how are the calories sliced off?
Watch Now:Amazon
#21 - Kebab, Oysters and Gin
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 6/10/2013
Jimmy Doherty asks: what exactly is in a doner kebab? After going to a kebab manufacturer and helping make a doner, Jimmy is pleasantly surprised by what constitutes a real one. But he soon discovers that a lot of kebab shops in the UK don't know which meat is in the doners they're selling. So, armed with a stack of random kebabs bought from around the country, Jimmy gets a specialist laboratory to carry out DNA tests. He has each sample tested for donkey, horse, lamb, beef, chicken and pork - and the results are varied. Meanwhile, Kate Quilton wants to find out the safest way of eating oysters. After seeing how they're caught she's shocked to discover that 75% of UK-caught oysters contain the sickness bug Norovirus. After seeing British oysters being cleaned for consumption, the team visit Health Protection England to find out the safest way to eat oysters without getting ill. And finally, Matt Tebbutt learns about the amazing ingredient that comes in every bottle of that classic English tipple gin.
Watch Now:Amazon
#22 - Prawns and Mushrooms
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/24/2012
This episode explores how prawns are intensively farmed and discovers why there are often so few wild mushrooms in our wild mushroom soups. Kate flies to Thailand - the world's biggest producer of farmed prawns - to get a sense of the scale of the industry, and Matt meets a professional wild mushroom forager in the woods of West Sussex.
Watch Now:Amazon
#23 - Cod Wars
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/3/2014
Jimmy finds out whether we should be eating cod or not and asks if there's enough in the sea to go round. He visits Iceland to discover why they supply most of the cod in our supermarkets, instead of British cod. Is Iceland's cod better? Kate investigates why, unlike other popular fruits, most British supermarkets only stock one variety of banana. She heads to Malaysia to learn about a disease that could mean the end of one of our favourite fruits. Plus, Matt examines the methods used to make popcorn and discovers why eating bucketloads of popcorn might not satisfy your appetite, encouraging you to eat more than you should.
Watch Now:Amazon
#24 - Camel Milk, Fresh Pasta, Value Ranges
Season 16 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/8/2019
How do you milk a camel? Kate investigates, and explores camel milk's rising popularity. How does supermarket fresh pasta last so long? And should we buy supermarkets' standard products or value ones?
#25 - Baby Rice, Beef Burgers, Sushi
Season 15 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/22/2018
Matt Tebbutt investigates concerns about levels of naturally occurring arsenic in baby rice products, Jimmy Doherty examines Marks & Spencer's claim that they can trace all their beefburgers back to the cow, and Kate Quilton find out whether a parasite could be hiding in sushi.