The Food Programme (BBC Radio 4)

Sheila Dillon looks at some of the latest developments in airline food. The supply chain is beginning to open up and innovative producers from the north east of Britain have succeeded in winning contracts to supply leading airlines. One of these suppliers - 'Look What We Found' - has led the way in technology to deliver quality ambient food in a bag. They've converted this to a tray of food that can be heated and eaten during a flight. Gate Gourmet, one of the largest providers of airline catering in the world, has had its difficulties in recent years - strike action and radical restructuring. Now back on its feet it has just opened a new £10m production kitchen. Sheila Dillon visits the new facilities and sees for herself the challenges of feeding and pleasing millions of people a year consuming meals 30,000 feet up in the sky. producer: Lucinda Montefiore.

Richard Johnson is on a mission to revive the fortunes of the British kebab.

A life long lover of the world famous street food he's convinced that a more authentic kebab culture can flourish in Britain. On his travels he finds out how and why it became so popular here and where most of the UK's kebabs are made.

Then, in order to understand the authentic techniques used in Turkish kebab making Richard travels to Istanbul and Bursa home of the Iskender kebab, a form of doner.

Will the family run business share its secret recipes and methods and help revive the kebab's reputation in Britain?

Produced by Dan Saladino.

Chef Mark Hix travels to Transylvania to help revive a disappearing food culture. From cheese making shepherds to pickle producers, he meets the people improving food in Romania.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Ice Cream : Everyone seems to like ice cream and with the market worth an incredible one billion pounds a year, it would seem to be recession-proof. This programme explores the market and the marketing. There has been an explosion in the number of artisan producers so how do they all compete? And what keeps the big players at the top of their game? What is real ice cream anyway? And, what is the difference between ice cream and gelato?

Sheila Dillon presents the programme from one of the UK's best loved ice cream parlours and is joined by expert Robin Weir who has spent the last twelve years updating his book, "Ice Cream, Sorbets and Gelati" - co-authored with wife, Caroline, - and widely recognised as the definitive guide to ice cream.

Northern Ireland's new Focus on Food policy, published earlier this summer, aims to put food at the heart of economic growth, and encourage value added, and quality, food production.

While in the South the food revolution of the past 30 years created a plethora of innovative, quality food businesses to feed a burgeoning tourism sector, in the North the food and farming industries have been more commodity focused, and have lagged behind on the quality front. The Focus on Food strategy aims to provide expertise and support to stimulate the food and farming sectors, which, after the public sector, are the single biggest employers in the region.

Sheila Dillon visits two new value-added businesses, the sorts of enterprise Focus on Food is designed to encourage: Mash Direct, selling a range of mashes and vegetable dishes fresh through the retailers and providing an economic future for the family, and Glastry Farm whose dairy herd provide the milk for their premium ice creams based around regional produce like Armagh Bramleys, and strawberries. She also talks to established artisan baker Robert Ditty. Is the government strategy enough to kick start quality food entrepreneurism in Northern Ireland? And in the era of public-sector cuts will the financial back-up be available?

Sheila Dillon looks behind the scenes of the world's largest and smallest pasta factories. It's a difficult time as wheat prices are high and so competition for grain is fierce.

Fires, droughts and speculation in the wheat market together with poor harvests of durum wheat is creating a rise in prices. Pasta producers all over the world compete for the best quality semolina, produced from the milled, high protein and low yielding durum crop.

John Dickie, Professor of Italian Studies at University College London, outlines the rise and rise of pasta making in Italy dating back to the Middle Ages. Sicily had a large scale pasta export business dating back at least 1000 years but it wasn't until Italy's economic boom of the 1960's that pasta became a truly national dish.

Reporter Dany Mintzman follows five tonnes of spaghetti as it travels along the production line of the world's largest pasta factory, owned by Barilla, a family owned business started in the 1870s.

Farmers in the UK used to grow durum wheat when it was an EU subsidised crop. Although it is best suited to hot and dry weather conditions a lot of it was then used by British companies producing dried pasta for the supermarkets. That is no longer the case and the last factory selling mass market pasta stopped production in 2001, unable to compete with the vast scale of the Italian producers.

However in Cornwall, one farmer, Charlie Watson-Smyth has spent the last two years trying to grow durum wheat and then turn it into pasta to sell in his farm shop. As reporter Dilly Barlow discovers it's been such a success that he's now supplying The Eden Project and restaurants around Padstow.

Produced by Dan Saladino.

Scagglethorpe Queening, Ribston Pippin, the Wass - Simon Parkes meets those restoring the orcharding tradition of the north, from the walled community garden at Helmsley to the orchard village of Husthwaite, and samples some of the commercial fruits of these orchards including a new cider brandy from the orchards of Ampleforth Abbey.

Dr Joan Morgan, apple expert and author of the seminal New Book of Apples, outlined many of the great northern varieties at the RHS London Autumn Harvest Show.

Michael Jack, President of the National Fruit Show, and a BBC Food & Farming Awards judge, samples some of the orchard drinks: Cheshire Apple Juice from Eddisbury Fruit Farm, Husthwaite's cider, and Ampleforth's cider brandy.

Producer: Rebecca Moore.

Sheila Dillon hears from the people attempting to revolutionise the sandwich. We're now seeing the rise of food businesses specialising in just one type of sandwich using authentic recipes from around the world.

The food entrepreneurs are making everything from the Vietnamese Bahn Mi through to the Argentinean Lomito, all are sandwiches which rely on the makers finding authentic bread to match the original recipe.

This development is being watched closely by the large sandwich manufacturers supplying the supermarkets. The prepared sandwich business is with £3bn a year and is based on developing new ideas. Dan Saladino follows some sandwiches through the supply chain.

Sheila is also joined by the food writer Bee Wilson, the author of Sandwich: A Global History.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

What food do students have access to, what do they eat? Sheila Dillon investigates the catering provided for students across the country in these financially straightened times. She talks to industry expert Chris Druce about the big catering companies and their expansion into higher education. She visits a food co-op at the School of Oriental and African Studies; Dan Saladino visits Plymouth University on the day it hosts its first farmers market and talks to stall holders, students, and Slow Food UK about its efforts to enrol students in its philosophy and approach to food. And Professor Warren Belasco from the University of Maryland describes how there's nothing new about student activism around food - think 60s, the University of California at Berkeley, the counter culture.

Producer: Lucinda Montefiore.

In these hard economic times does a Private Members Bill introducing new standards for the food sourced by public bodies stand a chance of becoming law? Simon Parkes visits Nottinghamshire, where some hospital meals and all school dinners are procured this way, to look at what such a change might mean in practice.

The Nottingham City Hospital has been sourcing sustainably for 7 years, buying its meat and vegetables from local farmers. Food is fresher, higher quality, and no more expensive, and now over half the money the hospital spends on food goes into the local economy, benefitting local suppliers like dairy wholesalers Transfresh, and butchers Owen Taylor.

Also 7 years ago Nottinghamshire County Council began its process of sourcing its school meals food sustainably, and has now achieved Silver Standard under the Soil Association Food for Life Partnership scheme. Donna Baines, School Food Development Manager, met Simon in Maloney's butchers, which now supplies all their meat, with Alison Maloney and Jeanette Orrey, school meals campaigner, to discuss the impact of these changes on the food, their finances, and the threats posed by the current spending review. The service is currently being "market tested" with a view to potential privisation. Conservative Councillor Andy Stewart explains what that might mean.

In the studio to discuss the Bill are Labour MP Joan Walley (Stoke on Trent North) who tabled the Private Members Bill; Tony Cooke Government Relations Director of catering service provider Sodexo; and Kath Dalmeny, Policy Director of Sustain, which runs the Good Food for Our Money campaign.

Producer: Rebecca Moore.

Sheila Dillon hears from some of the world's disappearing food tribes and finds out why efforts are underway to preserve indigenous food cultures in north America, Scandinavia and in Scotland's Highlands and Islands.

She travels to Turin for Terra Madre, the biannual gathering of food communities, farmers, fishermen and cooks organised by the international Slow Food movement. Among the 6000 delegates who'd travelled from 160 countries are people from indigenous communities like the Sami, nomadic arctic reindeer herders as well as native American rice harvesters, the Ojibwe.

Scientists, agriculturalists and nutritionists are now taking more interest in these traditional cultures seeing them as valuable models of sustainable food production and offering fresh insights into human diets.

But many of these food cultures are under threat because of disputes over land rights, prejudice and climate change and so work is underway to understand, document and support these communities. Sheila meets the people involved in making this happen.

Producer Dan Saladino.

Over the past few months Supermarket price wars have halved the cost of one of Britain's best loved fruits - the banana. Even though retailers say they aren't passing cuts down to growers Sheila Dillon asks, whether our appetite for cheap fruit is having an impact on workers at the other end of the supply chain. We travel to Ecuador, one of the world's leading banana exporters, to explore the reaction on a plantation.

Elsewhere, in Costa Rica, we hear a disturbing investigation into the lives of pineapple workers who accuse the big exporters of exploitation and union breaking to provide bargain fruit. And on the brighter side of pineapple growing we meet the woman who is working tirelessly to reintroduce farming of the exotic fruit to her island in the Bahamas.

Producer: Deiniol Buxton.

Sheila Dillon looks at new ideas for using food to save the British pub.

With 40 pubs a week closing down and food sales starting to equal those of drinks, the role of food in the future of the public house has never been more important. Sheila Dillon explores how one pub has come up with a groundbreaking solution to keeping business thriving.

Producer: Dave Battcock.

A distiller, a brewer and a cider maker - but who will be the first winner of the Food and Farming Awards Best Drinks Producer Award? Oz Clarke joins Sheila Dillon in Birmingham's NEC to reveal all.

Food writer and critic Charles Campion and restaurateur and writer Mark Hix were the judges for this category and talk Sheila through the finalists.

In this first year of the Best Drinks Producer category the judges were overwhelmed with nominations for innovative entrepreneurs making all manner of juice, perry, teas, and wines. But the three drinks chosen - a cask ale, a spirit and a traditional cider - have been made in these islands throughout our history.

Sipsmiths are one of a new generation of artisan distillers riding the coat-tails of pioneer distiller Julian Temperley who battled H M Customs for the right to distil. Simpsmith's were awarded the first London distillers licence in nearly 200 years, and now produce a London gin and a barley vodka from their west London residential neighbourhood distillery.

Mike Henney's Herefordshire ciders are the result of a hobby that got out of hand. From airing cupboard tinkering via farmers markets the brand is now sold throughout the country's main supermarkets, making good quality cider accessible to all. Henney's ciders all have protected name status, with apples sourced from within Herefordshire and the cider is made in a traditional way.

Wye Valley Brewery is a family business started by Peter Amor and now run by his son Vernon. It brings new meaning to local produce - beers are only sold within 50 miles of the brewery, the majority of hops are grown within 7 miles, and one beer, the Dorothy Goodbody Imperial Stout, even used Herefordshire malting barley.

From Caribbean to Thai and Vietnamese - Simon Parkes looks at the latest trends in British street food and takeaway meals. And we hear from some of the finalists in the BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards.

Producer: Elaine Lester.

Sheila Dillon explores the varieties of venison - wild and farmed - we can now find in butchers and supermarkets in the UK. She joins a stalker in Berkshire and talks to the biggest game dealer in the country.

Producer Dilly Barlow.

The Danish chef Rene Redzepi of Noma, the "World's Best Restaurant", forages for food in Lapland and London.

He's become one of the most influential chefs in the world because of his use of wild ingredients, foraged from the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

With dishes that revive lost food traditions, that use unfamiliar ingredients like mosses, lichen, spruces as well as native fruits. fish and fungi he has succeeded in putting a part of Europe ignored for its cuisine on the gastronomic map.

The idea of chefs and restaurants sourcing ingredients from the wild is not new, some already employ foragers but according to Joe Warwick, food writer, restaurant expert and the programme's reporter, Rene Redzepi has taken that approach to sourcing to whole new level.

For anyone sceptical about the abundance of wild foods in Britain suited to the needs of a restaurant Redzepi goes on a foraging trip to north London's Hampstead Heath. There he finds a new ingredient, the service berry.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Panettone and chocolate logs - Sheila Dillon embraces two of the cakes replacing our "traditional" Christmas cakes on our Christmas tables, and ponders what what we mean by traditional when it comes to Christmas cakes.

Panettone is a traditional Italian Christmas cake. John Dickie, Professor of Italian Studies at University College London and author of "Delizia! A History of the Italians and their Food" traces the history of this highly industrialised product from its Milanese origins, and the manufacturing of this "tradition". Reporter Dany Mitzman visits the Corsini Biscotti panettone factory in Tuscany where panettone is made in the traditional artisan style, using a mother yeast, slow proving, and cooling tipped upside down to allow the dome shape to set naturally, without additives. Their panettone is sold in through the Sainsbury's Taste the Difference range. But you can make your own - Fred Manson returned from an Andrew Whitley breadmaking course clutching a panettone recipe, and has been making his own ever since.

As a teenager Sheila Dillon's Christmas culinary rebellion took the form of baking a bouche de noel, the buttercream sculpted chocolate log believed to originate in France, and still produced by the hundred in smart patisseries today. Yule logs are now a popular range for both patiseries and supermarkets in the UK. This year's BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Award Food Champion, baker Richard Bertinet, baked Sheila his own take on the classic cake, adorned with gold leaf and powdered cabernet grape, and food historian Ivan Day tells its history in the UK.

Producer: Rebecca Moore.

Sheila Dillon traces the legacy of Elizabeth David's more scholarly work and reviews food writing in 2010 with blogger and critic Tim Hayward, photographer Jason Lowe and publisher Anne Dolamore. We hear from Elizabeth David's literary Executor Jill Norman about the shift in her work from recipe-driven writing in her early career to the later, more academic books and debate who has taken on her legacy of more scholarly food writing today.

Producer: Elaine Lester.

Sheila Dillon, with the help of some famous food lovers (including Giorgio Locatelli, Cyrus Todiwala, Fuchsia Dunlop and Bee Wilson) hears about their favourite kitchen gadgets. From a 300 year clockwork roasting spit to a 21st century thermal blender, what are the must-have qualities of these kitchen necessities? And how do you choose from the ever increasing plethora of expensive all-singing-all-dancing gizmos on sale in large kitchenware departments. Producer: Dilly Barlow.

Michelin-starred chef Angela Hartnett prepares a hearty winter's meal for Sheila Dillon using ingredients from the Best Producer category of the 2010 BBC Food and Farming Awards.

On the menu was pumpkin soup, spiced up with a spoonful of chutney from finalists The Tracklements Company, and served with a rather superior cheese on toast made with ciabatta from winner and artisan baker Alex Gooch and cheese from finalist Brenda Leddy's Stichill Jersey cows.

For the main course (in Monday's programme), there was a roasted loin of rare breed Gloucester Old Spot pork from Richard Lutwyche, winner of the Derek Cooper category, an example of successful conservation of a breed through consumption of its meat.

And for dessert, a blow-out of lemon posset made using cream from Stichill Jersey cows, and a crostata combining the Tracklement Company's seasonal medlar jelly, with spiced poached pears. A perfect feast for a cold winter's day.

Producer: Rebecca Moore.

Sheila Dillon investigates the appeal of shellfish - bivalves and molluscs - from the point of view of taste and sustainability and asks why we don't eat them more in Britain. She finds out what has happened to the marine environment in Lyme Bay since a scallop dredging ban was introduced in part of it and about the implications of a proposed mussel farm there. She discovers why whelk fishing is a big export industry with low environmental impact and oysters are ecologically friendly. Chef Mark Hix shows what can be done with the lesser used varieties like whelks and razor clams.

Producer: Harry Parker.

Sheila Dillon investigates some of the food stories behind Ireland's economic collapse and asks what role food will play in deciding the Republic's future?

Sheila Dillon explores the past present and future of cooking and food preparation in the school curriculum. She learns how it was introduced in the 1800s to educate girls for domestic service and is now part of the design and technology syllabus. Sheila looks at two approaches to food education in a primary and a secondary school and hears from interested parties the reasons for making cooking compulsory at secondary level.

Producer: Harry Parker.

Filtered, homogenised, standardised, raw, full fat, low fat - what is milk? Sheila Dillon teases out this seemingly simple question with Professor Peter Atkins, author of Liquid Materialities: A History of Milk, Science and the Law, who charts the changing stuff that we call milk.

Today's milk reflects today's interests, charted by Mintel in their most recent intelligence report on milk and cream, particularly the success of filtered milk Cravendale (Arla), and the 1% pioneered by Robert Wiseman Dairies, and widely copied since. Sheila visits the Arla Dairy in Stourton, Leeds, to find out about the many processes today's milk goes through to suit our current tastes.

The success of the 1% milk has been driven by the FSA campaign to reduce saturated fats. But as Professor Ian Givens Director of the University of Reading's Centre for Dairy Research explains, the evidence connecting milk consumption with cardiovascular disease shows a slight reduction in higher milk drinkers from lower milk drinkers.

Raw milk, despite being banned in Scotland and sold with a health warning in England and Wales, has seen sales growth recently, a result of farmers markets, online sales, and the beliefs of many that raw milk straight from the cow is a fundamentally different substance. Dr Natasha Campbell McBride advocates raw milk for many of her patients for a range of conditions, including lactose intolerance. To find out about modern raw milk production Sheila visited Hook & Son, who sell online and through farmers markets.

Producer: Rebecca Moore.

Food and the coalition. How does the government intend to change the way Britain eats? Sheila Dillon interviews Health Secretary Andrew Lansley. Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon investigates the role malt plays in our drinks and diet. Malt has been around for millennia and is a natural ingredient in many but many people won't realise how ubiquitous it is. As well as being the foundation of beer and whisky, its flavour and richness makes it a favourite for uses in bakery, breakfast cereals and confectionary as well as being an important export for the country. Sheila talks to a distiller, a baker and a brewer about malt's remarkable properties and visits a traditional maltster to find out how malt is made.

Producer: Harry Parker.

Simon Parkes reports from Japan on new ideas being developed for the future of the nation's food supplies. Producer: Dan Saladino.

Food writer Tim Hayward goes in search of British charcuterie - the preserved meat that we tend to think of as Contintental. He finds that making it is thriving and closer to its origins in the home than he had expected. He meets a couple whose hobby smoking meats has turned into a career; a shopkeeper, a publican and a restaurateur who cure hams and salamis on the premises for customers, and a pig farming family who have taken to curing their own pork. He learns about the British traditions of salting and pickling meats and talks to author Lindy Wildsmith about how we can do it at home - and even has a go at making his own bacon.

Producer: Harry Parker.

In France there is no shame in shopping in Picard. The specialist frozen food chain commands 18% of the french frozen market by selling quality frozen food to meet the needs of a time poor, food loving bourgeoisie.

Simon Parkes explores today's frozen food market, and asks if our own frozen sector could follow their lead?

Natalie Berg, Global Research Director of Planet Retail looks at current trends in the market which has seen a strong recovery during the recession. Brian Young, Director General of the British Frozen Food Federation, outlines the potential for the market, and constraints, most notably the success of chilled food ranges. Ian Keyes talks about the challenges of launching their value added, local "Yorkshire Peas" range. And Christine Tacon, Managing Director of Co-operative Farms, outlines the work done by the Fruit and Vegetable Taskforce which means that from 6th April plain frozen fruit and veg will be included in the Healthy Start voucher scheme.

Producer: Rebecca Moore.

Natural Wine is the latest buzz in the wine world but what is it? Sheila Dillon discusses and samples this chemical and additive-free "new" wine that was in fact quaffed by the Ancient Romans.

Producer: Dilly Barlow.

Sheila Dillon explores a food story behind the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. In 1861 Italians came together as one nation, but does food reveal a different story?

Sheila travels to Sicily where she hears how the island's powerful food culture is seen as evidence by some of disappointment with the creation of a nation state. She meets food historian Mary Taylor Simeti who explains how menus in the 19th century show how Sicilians rejected the temptations of food from the mainland and further afield.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon looks at the role of food producers and farmers in combating the Sicilian mafia.

The Sicilian "Cosa Nostra" emerged around the citrus groves of Palermo in the 19th century as control of farming and food production fell into the hands of estate managers and middle men.

From that time the influence of the mafia over food production and distribution on the island has been extensive.

In recent decades the work of investigators like Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino did much to lessen the power of the mafia but its involvement in the food business continues to this day.

Now, a new generation of entrepreneurs and anti-mafia campaigners are using food to send a message around the world that Sicily is breaking away from that past.

Producer Dan Saladino.

Borough Market, in south east London has been, and is, a food phenomenon. It took off in the 1990s, riding in the wake of the BSE outbreak that had led to a new interest in the source of our food. As it developed it looked as though a few seedy acres on the south bank of the Thames were going to give us, for the first time in decades, a market as good as the very best in France, Spain or Italy.

And Borough's influence stretches beyond London: it served as a model for other local authorities for what a market could be, and how it could regenerate communities and areas. Even supermarkets imitated its ranges as urban wealth reached rural pockets.

But the market's success has latterly been overshadowed by criticisms that it has lost its way, catering now for tourists not local cooks, and introducing rising tariffs on traders that some say threaten their businesses.

Sheila Dillon charts the rise of the market with some of its founders, and asks the Chair of Trustees for the Borough Market, Peter Wilkinson, has this nationally important market lost its way?

Producer Rebecca Moore.

Margate's Food Stories - Pie Days and Holidays.

The Food Programme follows Sophie Herxheimer an artist who collects and draws food stories. For four months she has been travelling around the seaside town of Margate in the south east to bring people's food memories to life through art.

Her aim is to create an exhibition and a book to celebrate the people of the town and give them an opportunity to share personal stories.

Once a thriving holiday destination for Londoners Margate is now trying to find a new identity. The recently opened Turner Contemporary Gallery is one step in that process. Sophie Herxheimer is hoping the food stories, and her drawings will also make a contribution to Margate's future.

The project was launched at Christmas in the town's Tudor House and produced a wide range of stories; funny, sad, nostalgic, joyful, eccentric and thought provoking.

People were invited to sit down, talk and watch their memories appear as Sophie drew them live. The work has been building up to the Easter bank holiday weekend when all of Sophie's drawings will be unveiled to the public.

Producer: Dan Saladino Reporter: Sara Parker.

Simon Parkes explores the connection between Royal wedding banquets and British food. From historic feasts with hundreds of lavish dishes, to present day 'austerity'.

A visit to the Tudor kitchens of Hampton Court palace reveals the scale and grandeur of wedding feasts of the past. Power, wealth and their display was all-important, and food was a central part of this. Huge marzipan sculptures, models in food of St Paul's Cathedral, and in the case of James II, a feast with 145 dishes in the first course alone; nothing was too extravagant or beyond the skill of the working-class cooks who invented these dishes. And historically, even beggars on the street got to share the food of the wedding feast, after each layer of the aristocracy had enjoyed its fill.

Food historian Ivan Day traces the evolution of buffets, wedding breakfasts, and looks at the influence of 'the first celebrity chef' - Patrick Lamb, master cook to four monarchs, and author of an early aspirational cookery book.

And as bunting and trestle tables take their place in streets across the UK, The Food Programme asks whether royal food has left a legacy of public feasting which might enhance 21st century communities.

Presenter: Simon Parkes Producer: Melvin Rickarby.

Investigating every aspect of the food we eat. Presented by Sheila Dillon. Produced by Rebecca Moore.

With coffee prices at a 30 year high Sheila Dillon traces the money we pay for a cup along the supply chain and also hears how it raises big questions for Fairtrade.

Recently the price for coffee on the world market broke through the important $3.00 barrier. Just a few years ago prices were as low as 60 cents.

Speculation from investors is one reason, but other factors like growing demand for coffee in Brazil and China look like creating a long term spike in prices. So what does this mean for growers and what will this mean for us? Will we start to taste the difference as roasters in the UK are forced to source different and cheaper beans?

This price spike also raises big questions for the Fairtrade model. Current prices are way above Fairtrade's minimum price, so do coffee growers still need Fairtrade?

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon reveals the secrets behind some of the world's great vinegars.

Traditionally, the home of balsamic vinegar is Modena in Italy. But now there is a new breed of British producers who are turning their hands to making this viscous dark brown condiment, as well as others who are producing a sumptuous array of fruit vinegars.

Sheila Dillon hears from the producers, both in Italy and in the UK, discusses the process and the products - and samples the end results with foodwriter and critic, Charles Campion.

Producer: Dilly Barlow.

The Food Programme investigates whether the Great British food renaissance is over. With food prices rising and consumer confidence falling, has the UK's good food bubble burst?

Sheila Dillon visits the Real Food Festival at Earls Court in London. It is a showcase for producers of fine food, and so a perfect indicator of how premium food products and sales are faring in the current economic downturn. Sheila meets chefs, farmers, producers and economists to discuss whether the British food renaissance is doomed, or in fact whether it ever even began.

Presenter: Sheila Dillon, Producer: Martin Poyntz-Roberts.

The burger is one of the world's most popular foods and it made meat eating affordable for millions, but it also became the food that symbolised many of the failings of the world's modern food system.

Sheila Dillon looks at a new attempt to revive its reputation as a quality food. This new "burger scene" where immense care is taken with sourcing the meat and using the right cuts, reflects not only a shift in burger eating, but also in attitudes to meat eating itself.

The highly respected food and farming writers Simon Fairlie and Colin Tudge both share the views on eating meat in the 21st century.

Producer: Dan Saladino

Photography: Paul-Winch Furness.

Since the National Trust began its campaign put food towards the top of its agenda, how far have its efforts to change the way we think about food progressed?

Cornish based chef Sanjay Kumar goes on a cooking mission to Italy to save the Cornish sardine.

The pilchard and its young offspring the sardine used to be the basis of a thriving fishing and processing industry in Cornwall. In the late 19th century nearly 20 thousand tonnes of sardine was caught, salted, packed and sent to northern Italy where it was highly prized.

By the end of the 20th century the fish had fallen out of favour. Supplies of the fish were still abundant but consumers had started to switch to more aspirational fish like cod and salmon. Sardines being landed fell below 10 tonnes. Fisherman gave up the profession, boats were destroyed and processing plants closed.

Now with concerns over global stocks, one solution is for more of us to switch to "poorer" more abundant fish species like the sardine and pilchard.

Chef Sanjay Kumar, born in Calcutta and now based in Cornwall, wants to help make that happen. He moved to the county five years ago, fell in love with Cornish food and its fishing traditions.

In May Sanjay travelled to a bi-annual event held in Italy called Slow Fish. It brings together fishermen, chefs, policy experts and fish scientists, all keen to promote small scale, traditional and sustainable forms of fishing. His mission was to use the event to find new ideas to help revive Cornish fishing tradition.

As well as cooking a traditional Italian sardine dish, meeting fellow campaigning chefs, Sanjay also gets to interview the European Union's Fisheries Commissioner, Maria Damanaki. Find out how Sanjay's trip can make a difference to how we all think about fish.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Food writer Tim Hayward investigates a new wave of food entrepreneurship started by professionals seeking a second career or life change, often due to redundancy. Can the food industry sustain this new creative bubble?

Ben Weatherall farms rare Blackface sheep and Galloway cattle on his remote hill farm near Dumfries, and aims to rear his animals with as little input as possible. He's one of a number of people working to keep food traditions alive in the Scottish Borders.

Following the River Nith downhill, as the animals will be doing later in the year, Sheila Dillon also meets Jim Henderson who has overseen the transformation of this stretch of the river. Formerly polluted and with low fish stocks it is now clean and stocks are thriving. Jim also plays a key part in the ongoing battle with poachers.

Ben's brother's farm is home to a rare herd of pedigree indigenous Ayrshire cattle. They're well known for their incredible cream and milk - but the raw (unpasteurised) milk is not allowed to be sold under Scottish law.

Robbie Cowan, Tom Brown and Ronnie Clark practice the ancient Norse fishing technique known as Haaf Netting, a practice in harmony with fish stocks. They believe the survival of this method to be essential to preserving local heritage, yet it's not possible to make a living from it now as fish numbers are down.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon investigates the issue of trans-fats in our food, and asks whether a voluntary agreement by the food industry to eliminate them by the end of the year is enough to prevent the kind of health problems associated with a diet heavy in industrial cooking fats.

Sheila Dillon investigates how emergency foods are made for disasters, droughts and wars. Companies developing meals for the crisis in the Horn of Africa explain their latest work.

Sheila also visits one of the biggest emergency food hubs in the world, The United Nations' World Food Programme base in Brindisi in Southern Italy. From one warehouse, food for hundreds of thousands of people can be stored and dispatched within a few hours of a crisis call coming in.

In Rome teams of nutritionists are looking into the very latest foods that can be sent around the world for populations affected by drought, conflict and earthquakes.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon follows two schools as they attempt to transform the way their pupils eat.

Yeasts, mysterious members of the fungi kingdom, are an essential part of our food production. They play a critical role in baking, brewing, wine-making and much more.

Dr Bill Simpson is the Managing Director of a company in Leatherhead that has hundreds of samples of yeasts, old and new, frozen in liquid nitrogen. By preserving different yeasts from around the world his team are able to recreate ales and lagers from the past.

Vincent Talleu stumbled upon baking by chance but is now consumed by a passion for good, tasty, healthy bread. Working with a twenty-year-old Swedish yeast 'starter' in an artisan bakery in London, he believes that 'real bread' must be made as it used to be; slowly. This allows the yeast to work its magic.

Andrew Whitley is a food educator who started the Village Bakery with a yeast sample he brought back to the UK from Russia. For Andrew, there is absolutely no reason why natural yeasts cannot be used much more widely in bread-making, so that loaves with no synthetic additives and longer production times can be available to all.

John Downes pioneered the Australian sourdough revolution in the seventies, and is now working daily with yeasts, recreating the indigenous loaf of the British Isles: ale-barm bread.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon looks back at the life of Mario Cassandro - the man who helped re-invent the restaurant in Britain.

Together with his business partner, Franco Lagattolla, Mario Cassandro helped make dining out in 1960s Britain a far more fun, informal and gastronomically pleasing experience.

A former waiter from Naples he created Soho's Terrazza Restaurant. As well as attracting the like of Frank Sinatra, The Beatles and Princess Margaret it was a restaurant that brought together all layers of British society.

They were all keen to experience a new look in restaurant design (care of Enzo Appicella, the man who went on to create the look of the early Pizza Express restaurants) as well carefully sourced and authentic ingredients.

Mario Cassandro passed away this summer, former Good Food Restaurant Guide editor Tom Jaine described him as one of a small number of people who helped transform the restaurant industry in the UK. Tom joins Sheila to help tell his story.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

The Food Programme looks at Scotland's first ever national food policy, introduced by the SNP, to try and join up every aspect of food production and health in the country. Presented by Sheila Dillon. Producer: Maggie Ayre.

In a series looking at the people who've changed the way we eat, The Food Programme profiles the campaigner and cheese expert Major Patrick Rance.

In the 1950s he set up a shop which offered a rare sight: row after row of British cheeses. By promoting and selling farmhouse cheeses he saved many from extinction.

Later in the 1980s he became a prolific writer publishing The Great British Cheese Book in 1982. For the first time home-produced cheeses were documented and explained. He inspired a new generation of farmers, producers and retailers to bring a food culture back from the brink.

Chef Richard Corrigan, writer Juliet Harbutt and cheese expert Randolph Hodgson all explain why Patrick Rance's legacy is still alive today.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

A special edition with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen looking at the history of kitchen designs and the designers who have influenced the most important space in our homes.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Simon Parkes tells the story and legacy of the legendary and maverick chef George Perry-Smith.

In 1952 he opened The Hole in the Wall restaurant in Bath. He had no formal training, took inspiration from domestic cook books and changed the British restaurant scene forever.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Across the UK, people are going hungry and not getting enough of the foods that they need. Every week, new food banks - where food is given out for free to those in need - are opening their doors, and established food banks are reporting a sharp rise in demand.

In this edition of The Food Programme, Simon Parkes looks at food banks and asks if this is the only way.

The Trussell Trust is a charity that oversees a nationwide network of food banks in the UK. Simon journeys to Salisbury to the Trust's headquarters where he sees how food boxes are packed, meets those who use the food bank and volunteer there- and talks to Executive Chairman of the Trust Chris Mould about the organisation and its relationship with Government.

In New York City, Rich Ward visits the Union Square Greenmarket and talks to Jan Poppendieck, author of the groundbreaking book Sweet Charity which asked difficult questions about the role of the charitable sector in US domestic food aid in the nineties.

Martin Caraher, Professor of Food and Health Policy at London's City University, discusses what the UK can learn from North America, what the role of the State is, and shares his thoughts on why in a country in which there is enough food to feed everybody, there is this rise in demand for charitable food aid?

Produced by Rich Ward.

Honey, prized since ancient times, is today shipped all over the planet. It is used as a pure foodstuff, a sweetening agent, in food manufacturing as well as in pharmaceuticals and more.

In this edition of The Food Programme, Sheila Dillon looks at the business of honey.

The story starts in rural Oxfordshire, where Rich Ward goes on a production site tour with Patrick Robinson - factory manager at Rowse, the biggest honey packer in the UK. The company brings honey in from all over the world for use in its own-label honeys and in honeys that it packs for its many customers. Rowse also blends honeys - matching the exact specifications of customers, including most of the major supermarkets.

Sheila meets Thomas Heck, a honey trader based in the City of London. His company procures large quantities of honeys from many countries that are shipped in large metal drums.

Hattie Ellis, author of 'Sweetness & Light: The Mysterious History of the Honeybee' joins Sheila to talk honey history and adulteration.

Journalist Andrew Schneider discusses his recent article about 'honey laundering' that sent shockwaves around the USA, portraying a situation in which mislabelled honey and fake honeys are finding their way on to the shelves.

Tony Spacey, the founder of Littleover Apiaries in Derbyshire, explains why his company has the need for an on-site laboratory.

The highest court in the EU has just issued a ruling concerning GM pollen and honey, which will have far-reaching implications both for the honey trade and beyond. As global demand grows year on year, could the EU be facing a honey shortage?

Produced by Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon explores the issue of advertising junk food to children, and how companies have changed their marketing since the banning of the showing of food advertisements during children's television programmes four years ago.

Britain is a brewing nation, with a long tradition of creating incredible beers to be enjoyed in any number of taverns, inns and pubs.

Pete Brown - beer blogger and author - believes that Britain should be truly proud of its remarkable brewing heritage and charts the ups and downs of beer in the UK from Burton-on-Trent's special water via Lloyd George's unsuccessful attempt at Prohibition through to the importance of the glass that we sip our beer from.

On October the 1st new taxes came into effect that lower the tax on beer with less than 2.8% alcohol by volume (abv), and raise it on brews with more than 7.5% abv.

With concerns across the UK about problem drinking, and debates about minimum unit pricing and glass sizes, Sheila Dillon asks if it is time to re-evaluate our relationship with beer, or can it be part of the solution?

Dan Saladino visits the second largest brewing company in the world - SABMiller - at their new research laboratory in Nottingham to see how their research into a new generation of low-alcohol beers is going.

The programme also features Mark Hunter, CEO of Molson Coors UK and Ireland (Britain's biggest brewer), Dr Vivienne Nathanson of the British Medical Association, Dr John Holmes of the University of Sheffield, and the BBC's Scotland Correspondent Colin Blane.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Richard Johnson travels to Los Angeles, a city where many of the world's food trends begin.

With the US economy in crisis LA's "food truck" scene is growing. People who have lost jobs are finding new careers by serving street food from trucks with relatively small start up costs.

These new businesses work well in LA because generations of immigration have created a diverse food culture and it's so close to one of the biggest farming regions in the United States.

Richard Johnson meets these street food pioneers, tastes a "cheese trilogy" and asks the city's most famous chefs and food writers what else the food future might hold.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon looks at some of the ingenious ways we have developed of preserving food through the ages, and enjoys some autumn foraging for fruits and berries with Jill Mason of the School of Artisan Food in Nottinghamshire.

Elderberry and Apple Chutney

Ingredients:

425g Elderberries

425g Bramley Apples (peeled and cored)

1 Large onion (chopped)

50g sultanas

150g soft light brown sugar

150ml red wine vinegar

½ tablespoon cayenne pepper

½ tablespoon mixed spice

Method In a large pan place the elderberries, apples, onion, sultanas, spices and half the vinegar and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the fruit is soft

Add the remaing vinegar and sugar whilst still simmering and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Continue to simmer until the chutney has thickened. Ladle the chutney into sterilised jars and seal.

Store for three months before eating.

Sheila Dillon asks if the calorie is an outdated way of controlling diet and reducing obesity.

Used increasingly by the food industry in a wide array of products from chocolate, crisps, ready meals to sweets, palm oil is both a controversial ingredient and, for many, an unknown one.

Used for centuries as a cooking oil in West Africa, palm oil has properties that make it a highly desirable and affordable component in food production. It is also used widely in animal feed, and in ever-larger quantities in South-East Asia as a cooking oil.

The target of several high-profile campaigns highlighting environmental damage caused by the rapid unchecked spread of palm plantations, it currently does not have to be labelled as palm oil, only 'vegetable fat' or 'vegetable oil'.

Dan Saladino goes on a journey to find out why the global use of this oil is growing so fast, and speaks to some of the key players in the palm oil world.

Tim Hayward meets Lloyd Mensah from Ghanaian street-food caterers Jollof Pot to discover palm oil's use in traditional West-Africa cuisine.

Dan follows the trail of this infamous and ubiquitous substance, ending at the Liverpool refinery of New Britain Palm Oil. Despite all the difficulties that the industry faces he asks if palm oil - actually an incredibly efficient, high-yielding crop - is the future for food?

Produced by Dan Saladino and Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon looks at the world of the commercial forager. As chefs become increasingly interested in sourcing wild ingredients, who are the people turning it into a profession?

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Simon Parkes meets the people trying to come up with food ideas for the future. Will techniques used by experimental chefs become mainstream in the 21st century?

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Mark Bittman is a high-profile figure in the United States. He's the chief food writer for the New York Times, a broadcaster, and a bestselling author.

Keen to understand the differences between the British and American food systems, one day he made a call out of the blue to Sheila Dillon. Once in London, he fixed up meetings with Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Arthur Potts Dawson.

The Food Programme joins Mark on his personal journey into the world of the campaigning chef.

Produced by Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon reports on the winners and finalists of The BBC Food & Farming Awards 2011.

Sheila Dillon talks to Food Award judges Jeremy Lee and Kath Dalmeny about some of the exciting grassroots developments in local markets around the country, focusing on the three outstanding examples of community food retailing which are transforming their communities in different and imaginative ways.

Dan Saladino exlores how higher food prices are changing what we buy and how we eat. From increases in food related crime to shortages of ingredients, what else is in store?

Dan Saladino explores the past, present and future of the most British of drinks, gin. And hears how a new generation of distillers is testing the boundaries of an old and familiar flavour.

For decades vodka was the spirit of choice, not just for James Bond, but also for bartenders and mixologists (a recent term for the people who develop new drink recipes and cocktails). But more recently people have been reaching out for more interesting and complex flavours to replace the neutral taste of vodka. Gin was perfect.

From as far back as the 12th century apothecaries had used juniper and its coniferous flavours in spirits to heal and revive. By the 17th century the Dutch had given us Geneva or Holland Gin, a rough, whisky like spirit with juniper at its base. As distilling techniques developed in the 19th century it became the refined gin we know today with juniper flavours being delicately mixed with botanicals like coriander, cinnamon, ginger and Orris.

It's the challenge of blending and experimenting with these flavours that has attracted a new generation of gin distillers. Dan Saladino explains the history that has made this 21st century gin craze possible and finds out what is now drawing people to what was once Britain's most notorious drink.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Nowhere else will you find a programme that juggles Elvis Presley's culinary history, questions over the origins of a 1970's crisp brand, references to Elizabeth David and some of the world's most unusual food sounds.

Food writer Tim Hayward performs this feat in a special Christmas Day edition of The Food Quiz. Panellists Allegra McEvady, Richard Johnson and Chris Neill pit their gastronomic knowledge, grasp of food trivia and culinary history against each other.

Categories include the devious "Into the Museum of Brands", a cult cookbook round as well as "What's Cookin'?" in which the teams have to identify a classic dish from the archives.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Tim Hayward and The Food Quiz team juggle more food history, trivia and recipe knowledge in pursuit of fun and gastronomic curiosity.

Recorded in front of a live audience at The Abergavenny Food Festival this special edition of the Radio 4 Food Quiz features panellists comedian Chris Neill, food writer Richard Johnson, television presenter Gizzi Erskine and restaurant insider Thomas Blythe.

This week's quiz categories include, "beer or racehorse" and "what's cookin'" as well as more from inside "the museum of brands".

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon reports on the major developments in the big food stories of 2011.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Food and the Olympics. Guest presenter John Inverdale looks ahead to London 2012 and explores the history of food and athletics from the first London Games of 1948.

Presenter: John Inverdale Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Generation Food. The Food Programme hears from the people coming up with new ideas and fresh thinking about how and where we produce food for the UK's future.

From computer programmers creating networks for people trading food locally through to community supported market gardens, Sheila Dillon finds out how a new generation is coming up with radical models for growing, buying and selling food.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

The trouble with chocolate. Sheila Dillon explains why supplies of cocoa around the world are facing a challenging future.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Meat-free cooking is in the spotlight. High-profile food writers are devoting books to delicious meatless food, and there are established restaurants, street-food vendors and new eateries offering vegetarian and vegan fare to diners of all stripes. Is it time for all restaurants and cafes to offer fantastic vegetarian food that doesn't feel like an 'add-on' to the menu?

In this edition of the Food Programme, Sheila Dillon asks if the British public are increasingly opening their minds to the possibilities of a complete plate of food with no meat?

The Food Programme's Carnivore-in-Chief Tim Hayward embarks on a mission to experience what vegetable, pulse and grain can offer.

Along the way meet Yotam Ottolenghi, Denis Cotter and encounter a flower-strewn van, some perplexed football fans and 'pasta' made from radishes.

Producer: Rich Ward.

In these uncomfortable times, Sheila Dillon asks what role does food play in giving comfort?

Producer: Sara Parker.

Sheila Dillon looks at how people are clubbing together to buy budget and luxury food.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Who makes sure our food is safe and how? A report on Britain's food safety net.

The Food Standards Agency is reviewing who makes sure our food is safe and how that work is carried out.

Currently the UK's 434 local authorities employ 2800 people to police our food. With with austerity measures underway there's now less money to spend on those services and budgets for Environmental Health, Trading Standards and public analysis are coming under pressure.

It's resulted in food sampling rates and the number of inspections on businesses coming down. Professor Erik Millstone, an expert on the UK's food safety system, believes this could result in an increase in risk from food borne illness.

Already rates of Campylobacter, a bacterial form of food poisoning, are on the rise and so any future safety regime will have that as one of its main priorities.

Sheila Dillon interviews Tim Smith, Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency, about the cuts, the FSA's review and if economic pressures could lead to an increase in risk to our health.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

We are going through an unprecedented change in how we eat. Developing countries are moving away from traditional diets, and all over the world new types of foodstuffs are edging out foods that have been consumed for centuries. Is this a change for the better, what is driving this change, and how well do we understand what the implications are?

Two influential thinkers - Michael Pollan in the USA and Joanna Blythman in Britain - have written books that, at a time when food choices and dietary advice seem ever more complicated, offer a cry for simplicity.

The most populous nation on the planet - China - is undergoing its own rapid transition. Could the glamour of the western diet really threaten such an ancient and unique food culture?

Sheila talks to Michael, Joanna and the food writer and expert on Chinese food, Fuchsia Dunlop, about the food that we eat.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Richard Johnson reports from Japan on the impact of the Fukushima disaster on food. How has the threat of contamination changed attitudes to the nation's prized food culture?

A year ago, Japan was hit by the catastrophic Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. In the days that followed, reactors 1, 2 and 3 at the Fukushima nuclear power station experienced full meltdown. The fears of catastrophic radioactivite contamination led to a 20 km-radius evacuation around the plant, while engineers risked their lives to stabilise the reactors.

It was the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, but that wasn't the end of the story. A longer-term food story started to emerge.

A testing regime was introduced to monitor radiation levels in the food supply chain. The World Health Organisation is also carrying out its own tests to ensure that absorption of caesium through food, over decades to come, doesn't become a major threat to public health.

But as Richard Johnson discovers, confusion and lack of information in the early weeks of the crisis has led to suspicion and mistrust among large sections of the Japanese population. For this reason, the disaster is likely to not just change Japan's relationship with its politicians, but also its food culture.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

There's been a huge growth in the range of 'free from' foods over the last decade. Sheila Dillon asks whether this is due to more people being diagnosed with food allergies, or whether retailers and manufacturers are finding their own ways to grow consumer interest in dairy and gluten free foods.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Tim Hayward is not alone in his passion for stock, but there must be few culinary adventurers who take things to the level of his highly developed home routine.

Glasses still steamy from several simmering stockpots, Tim sets off on a journey into the world of stock. On his travels he'll share precious stock secrets, learn from the masters, tell tales of nineteenth-century Uruguay and peek behind the doors of stock-cube heaven.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Simon Parkes takes a look behind the scenes of Britain's favourite snack, the biscuit and as he discovers major change is underway to some of our most famous food brands.

Our most popular biscuits, including the digestive and the Bourbon became firm fixtures of British life in the 19th century. The snacks were produced in their millions in places like Reading and York and exported all over the world. Today, we spend more than 2.5 billion pounds eating our way through an ever increasing range of biscuits.

It's a world that's now having to adapt to a number of powerful trends. Firstly, as we're being encouraged to eat more healthy foods, millions of pounds are being invested by manufacturers with the aim of "reformulating" some of the most valuable recipes in the food industry. Secondly, with the rise of global food brands, more and more of these iconic snacks are being bought up by a small number of companies.

What does all this mean for a British food institution? Simon Parkes takes a close look at the pleasures and the profits behind the biscuit.

Producer: Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon looks at the spiritual and therapeutic value many place on breadmaking. She meets a group of refugees who've experienced torture, all using baking in their recovery.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Since ancient times humans have harnessed the power of microbes to preserve food and enhance its flavours. Rich and complex food cultures have developed that use this power in a process called fermentation - making pickles, breads, wines and much, much more.

Sheila Dillon joins Sandor Katz - author and 'fermentation revivalist' - to find out more about the wonders of fermentation as well as our very relationship with these microbes.

Producer: Rich Ward.

From barrel ageing beer to sourcing intensely bitter hops, Dan Saladino reports on the latest trends in American brewing that are starting to influence British beer styles.

The US "craft beer" scene started to take shape 30 years ago. Prohibition in the 1920s and post-war industrialisation brought an end to one of the world's most diverse brewing cultures.

In 1979 President Jimmy Carter made home brewing legal again, and soon after, a network of adventurous brewers started to emerge. Known as craft brewers, they operate on a small scale and use traditional brewing techniques but also place great emphasis on experimentation and innovation.

American brewer and editor of The Oxford Companion to Beer, Garrett Oliver puts their quest for new flavours down to the US losing its own brewing culture and so being free to explore all others. Now a young generation of brewers in the UK are looking at these new US styles and discovering techniques like barrel aging as well embarking on experiments with new, intensely flavoured, hop varieties.

Sheila Dillon looks at changes to the UK's egg supply following the EU's ban on battery cages and how the food industry is dealing with shortages and escalating prices.

Although there may still be enough eggs on the shelves of our supermarkets, the programme discovers that egg products used in some of our most popular dishes are in ever shorter supply and some may even be replaced with egg substitute produced by the dairy industry.

Three different food producers explain how the use eggs on a large scale and the impact the EU changes have made on their access to supplies of whole, liquid and frozen products.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Despite a long history of use in coastal areas of the British Isles, and with a well-established role in folklore and traditional medicine - seaweed is not an ingredient currently found in many British kitchen cupboards.

The raw ingredient is something of an acquired taste, and knowledge of different seaweeds and their uses is not widespread. However, as Sheila Dillon discovers in this edition of The Food Programme, things are starting to change.

In food cultures such Japan's, seaweeds have long been an important and treasured food. Through the work of people such as Prannie Rhatigan, author of Irish Seaweed Kitchen, people are starting to rediscover how to cook and utilise seaweeds and are looking again out to sea.

With a rise in scientific interest into the unique compounds within seaweeds, appreciation of its unique flavour properties, and trials of its uses as a food fortificant, Sheila asks if seaweed is a food of the future?

Producer: Rich Ward.

What's the future for one of the world's most successful and controversial crops, soya? It has become one of the main ingredients in feed for livestock, so crucial in meat production, and it's a major source of edible oil used in food processing and cooking, but have we become too dependent on the soya bean?

This year supplies of soya have tightened and the world price is approaching a record high. Because it's so widely used it has become a powerful trigger for food price inflation. For this reason, the food industry is now looking for alternative sources of protein.

The rise of the soya bean in the west has been a relatively recent development. Its history as a food crop in south east Asia goes back 5000 years as an ingredient for traditional foods like tofu, soya sauce, Tempe and soya milk. Then, in the 1930's, technology was developed in the United States that allowed the protein and oil in the soya bean to be extracted on a large scale.

From that point on it has become one of the most important and widely used ingredients in our food supply. In the last fifteen years alone, the global soya crop has doubled, most of which can be found in north America, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

If world demand increases where will these new supplies of the soya bean come from? Dan Saladino reports on the latest trends.

For many years the symbol of stodgy service station fare, the humble pie is enjoying a renaissance as chefs and public alike discover the joys of a lovingly made pastry containing top quality ingredients.

The Food Programme meets piemakers and connoisseurs at the annual British Pie Awards and hears why top chefs and food writers are extolling the virtues of the pie

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Tim Hayward offers his reflections on the past, present and future of the British breakfast. Has the first meal of the day become a problem to solve rather than a pleasure?

Joined by food writer and breakfast historian Seb Emina, Tim finds out how the great British breakfast became the envy of the world. With its origins dating back to aristocratic Edwardian country houses, the cooked breakfast spread through the chop houses of working class London and beyond.

But with the huge amount of breakfast choices now available and our increasingly busy lives, eating breakfast has become an increasingly diverse and fragmented food experience.

For some breakfast is an exercise in "grab-and-go" and indulging in more of a "desk-fast" than a meal, but there are some other interesting trends underway; sales of the big name cereal brands have been falling, porridge sales have been making something of a comeback. For an insight into this trend, Tim meets Nick Barnard of Rude Health, one of the more recent players on the breakfast scene competing for our morning appetite.

With the help of food writer Anna Berrill, Tim finds out how, for some, the traditional breakfast is becoming more of a whole social occasion. Writer and comedian Chris Neill explains his own personal problem with breakfast and we learn how the so called "third wave" coffee scene is a growing influence on our mornings.

Producer: George Casey.

Simon Parkes reports from the London International Wine fair to discover the latest trends in the wine industry.

Simon meets wine producers from emerging wine producing countries such as India and Brazil to taste the wines that could soon be hitting the supermarket shelves in the UK. He also samples wines with a lower alcohol strength to discover if it is possible to produce wines that taste good without the high levels of alcohol.

The Food Programme also reports on two smaller festivals focussing on 'natural wine': wines made with a minimum of chemical input to find out whether natural wines are now becoming more established in the UK wine market.

Presenter: Simon Parkes Producer: Martin Poyntz-Roberts

Sheila Dillon explores the world of the modern British tomato. Great improvements have been made in variety, flavour and quality over the last decade thanks to some technological breakthroughs including computer controlled glasshouses and use of micro-environments, green energy and smart water use.

Now many more varieties can be trialled, grown and marketed in the UK. But with the emphasis on quality and flavour rather than quantity, can they ever compete with Spanish imports?

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

In this special programme Sheila Dillon launches the search for this year's winners of the BBC Food & Farming Awards.

Sheila is joined by Michelin-starred chef Angela Hartnett to catch up with some of the recent winners and nominees. With insights from last year's winners of the Best Food Producer award - Loch Arthur Creamery - to the Best Market - Bolton - we hear why the awards make a real difference.

Valentine Warner and Pete Brown, both new to the judging team this year, give their take on the Drinks Producer and Market categories, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, also a winner in 2011, explains why these awards really do matter.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon meets Jan Matthews head of the UK's biggest catering job, organising food for the Olympics, London 2012 to ask how successful she's been with the "Olympic Food Vision" that promised to showcase the best of British food.

She also meets the Chair of London Food, Rosie Boycott to hear the latest on the city's growing initiative that aims to be part of the Olympic food legacy.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

With digital publishing evolving at a blistering pace, Sheila Dillon investigates the future of the printed cookery book.

Andrew Webb is a food journalist whose work spans the online and printed worlds. He is the author of 'Food Britannia', which just scooped the Guild of Food Writers award for Food Book of the Year, and also edits a food website. To find out where things are moving in the world of the food book, The Food Programme sent him to meet five key players in the world of food, books and publishing.

Antony Topping is a literary agent, whose clients include Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Thomasina Miers. Mary-Clare Jerram is a Publishing Director at Dorling Kindersley, looking after both digital and print editions. Ian Malone runs a company specialising in food apps for phones and tablets.

Andrew also meets Dr Peter Ross, Principal Librarian at the Guildhall Library, home to the largest collection of food books in any UK public library - and lastly, Hardeep Singh Kohli is a broadcaster, author and is passionate about food.

Sheila is joined in the studio by Neill Denny, Editor-in-Chief of the book industry magazine 'The Bookseller', Kerstin Rodgers - aka MsMarmitelover - food blogger and pop-up restaurant pioneer, and Ben Ebbrell, who cooks and presents on the Sorted food site.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon asks if food is the key to reviving the Britain' declining high streets. Food expert, Henrietta Green visits Croydon town centre which has just been awarded a grant by retail guru,Mary Portas to see if a radical food future is possible and asks what are the barriers to bringing quality food back to our high streets.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

What began as a writing project for school has, in two short months, become an internet phenomenon that is changing the way people are looking at the food children eat.

"NeverSeconds" is the food blog of nine year old Martha Payne (AKA 'VEG'), from Lochgilpead in the West of Scotland. Inspired by a family friend who is a journalist, Martha started to photograph and rate her school dinners.

A few weeks ago her story went global when her local council banned her from taking any more of these photographs. The council backed down after a massive public outcry, but the profile of the site had by then been boosted irreversibly.

What next for Martha and her father Dave, and the rest of the Payne family? Sheila Dillon went to their thirteen acre smallholding to meet them and find out.

Sheila discovered a family very much in tune with where their food comes from, and went on a journey that took in celebrity chef and food campaigner Nick Nairn, a llama, haggis lasagne and a chance to change the Scottish food system.

Producer: Rich Ward.

Can Health Secretary Andrew Lansley change Britain's bad eating habits? Sheila Dillon hears how the debate is shaping up on the "responsibility deals" aimed at changing our diet.

With over 60 per cent of the British population now overweight or obese everyone agrees that change is needed in how we eat and what we eat. One part of the government's strategy involve so called responsibility deals, agreements with the food industry based around a series of pledges.

A growing number of food manufacturers and retailers have signed up, pledging to reduce calories, remove salt and harmful trans-fats from food. But will it deliver a big enough change in the nation's diet?

Sheila Dillon finds out how the Danish government has recently opted to place a tax on nutrients like saturated fat and sugar, meanwhile in New York City, mayor Michael Bloomberg has placed a ban on ingredients like trans-fats and is now placing restrictions on the size of soft drink portions.

So, to tax, ban or adopt voluntary agreements on food? Sheila hears how the three different ideas are being developed.

Producer: Dan Saladino.