Food waste isn't a new story. So why cover it again? Well, in the UK, we are still wasting over 10 million tonnes of food a year. That's food that could have been sold, eaten, cooked and enjoyed.

Clearly this is a problem that isn't going away. But crucially, we have a new government who have said that a zero waste economy is one of their top priorities for the environment. What will this mean for food waste? And is it individuals, or businesses, who can really make a difference?

In this programme, Leyla Kazim goes after some new answers. Does the answer lie in the design of our fridges, for example? Or in making it law for supermarkets to tell us how much food they waste? Along the way, she meets the people who have made it their life’s work to help us cut waste, from dumpster divers to fridge enthusiasts.

Ever wondered where all the unsold food from supermarkets goes? Matt Homewood, AKA The Urban Harvester, went to find out one night in his home town of Copenhagen, Denmark, and what he found shocked him. He began 'dumpster diving' every night and sharing pictures of his food swag on social media. Leyla hears how these posts began to go viral and were the start of Matt’s activism to put the spotlight on supermarket food waste.

Food waste is often talked about in terms of redistribution to charities or food banks. But that isn’t the only answer, finds Leyla, when she visits Katy Newton, founder of Wasted Kitchen in Kent and a finalist in the BBC Food and Farming Awards 2024. Katy buys or trades for the surplus food she uses to make her takeaways, ferments and deli salad boxes, which go back on sale at the food hall next door. Katy explains why she wanted to counter the narrative around food charity and help people be more confident in the kitchen along the way.

Leyla hears an update from Wrap, the organisation that runs the UK’s official food waste scheme, to find out what action has been taken so far and whether they would support a law to make food waste reporting legal. She asks the same question to the new government, before calling on journalist Ian Quinn, chief reporter at trade magazine The Grocer, for his take on what's happening in the industry.

Online there is a growing network of influencers helping people eat everything they buy to save waste, but also, save money. Two of the most popular, Elly Pear (another finalist for this year's Food and Farming Awards) and Max La Manna, meet in Elly’s kitchen in Bristol to share their best food waste tips and approach Elly’s fridge, ready-steady-cook style, to cook lunch with last night's leftovers.

Talking of fridges, at her home in London, Leyla hosts PhD researcher Emma Atkins for one of Emma’s unique ‘fridge sessions’. Emma’s research looks at our relationship with the fridge, how its design can hinder our food waste efforts, and how fridge history is linked to over-buying of food. She quizzes Leyla about her food waste hotspots and explains how we might be hampered in our food waste efforts by the objects and systems around us.

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Food, identity, myths and reality. In a globalised world can a dish reflect who we are and where we live? Dan Saladino explores fascinating stories of food, music and tradition in an ever changing and fast moving world.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

As a major outbreak from a new strain of E. coli makes headlines, we ask: what makes food safe? How are food producers coping with new strains of food pathogens? And what does safe food even mean in a world where processed food is increasingly seen as the top cause of dietary ill health? Meeting over a platter of various foods from raw milk cheese to salad, Sheila Dillon and producer Nina Pullman hear from microbiologists, food safety experts and cheese makers to hear the challenges of staying ahead of the curve when it comes to food and science. They speak to a scientist testing bacteria-eating viruses that can be inserted into feed or food packaging to tackle these new E. colis, known as STECs, and they chat to a global expert in food microbiology on how climate change is making pathogens more difficult to predict.

While such pathogens can get into a variety of foods, raw or unpasteurised cheese makers are feeling the pressure more than most due to the perception of risk around their products. Cheese makers at a panel in London explain the human impact on a small family business that is linked to an outbreak, while a tour of Neals Yard Dairy reveals the number of cheesemakers considering turning to pasteurisation due to fears around the new strains of STEC E. colis.

In a conversation about food that makes us sick, Sheila also meets members of the pubilc who took part in a recent national conversation on food for their views on food safety more broadly. What does food safety mean to them and what do the public expect from food?

Produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Welcome to the world of cocktails and the people who make them.

As Jaega Wise discovers in this programme, it's a world of extremes. On one hand, in the past decade, bartending has become a respectable, profitable career for some. International awards and competitions have thrust people like Monica Berg of London bar Tayēr + Elementary, and Max Hayward of Cardiff's Lab 22 into the media spotlight.

But the other side is darker. Zero hours contracts, long hours, bullying and harassment. And a hospitality industry which is stretched like never before.

In this programme, Jaega Wise speaks to bartenders, business owners and writers to make sense of where the professional bartending world is, and where it's heading. Presented by Jaega Wise.

Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

As energy bills rise to their new capped level at the start of October, Leyla Kazim shares some inspiring stories of giving that she has heard while on the road with the BBC Food and Farming Awards.

Judging is currently underway for the Awards, which will be held for the first time this year in Wales.

Given the financial situation the UK is in, with food inflation at its highest rate since 2008, perhaps it's no surprise that many of this years finalists are involved with getting food to people who are finding it harder to afford what they need.

From pay what you feel shops, to allotments providing food banks with fresh veg, and cooking for the community, in the face of increasing need, and straight after dealing with the Covid 19 pandemic, our finalists keep stepping forward to support those around them.

Organisations and individuals featured include: EMS Ltd in Hull, Big Bocs Bwyd in Barry, Mrs Mair Bowen from Kilgetty (Pembrokeshire), Mr Alun Roberts (Caernarfon).

Presented by Leyla Kazim Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

The quality of hospital food around the country remains a very mixed picture, despite various initiatives over the last decades. But now there is real optimism around a major Independent Review of NHS Hospital Food in England, published in 2020. Sheila Dillon looks at the barriers that have been holding back progress, and talks to Prue Leith, an Independent Advisor for the review, about the latest on progress with carrying through its recommendations.

Sheila meets catering teams at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, and the Royal Blackburn Teaching hospital, both part of a group of pioneering ‘exemplar’ NHS Trusts that are doing things differently with hospital meals, to find out how they’re building a model that others can follow.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

The co-op that's saving land, a food culture and villages at risk of being abandoned. In Benevento, Italy, Lentamente is also giving former convicts a future through farms and food.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Thirty years ago, Dave Myers, a specialist prosthetic make-up artist walked into a pub in Newcastle after scoring a job on a Catherine Cookson TV drama. Beyond the throng of TV crew sipping their white wine spritzers, he spotted the then assistant producer Si King, eating the pub's curry of the day at the pool table. He walked over, introduced himself and said to the landlord, "I'll have what he's having."

That was the moment one of the UK's most popular TV double acts was born. The Hairy Bikers' food travelogues, diet and campaigning programmes have been on our screens for more than two decades, and in that time Si and Dave have written 26 books. Self-proclaimed home cooks, their cheerful presenting style and on-screen banter have won them awards and scores of fans around the UK and the world.

In this programme Leyla Kazim asks Si and Dave how food and cooking have shaped their lives on and off screen, she hears the secrets to their enduring success, and hears from Stuart Heritage, TV critic for The Guardian, on why they still have much more road to travel together.

Presented by Leyla Kazim Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury

Sheila Dillon hears the story of one of the most loved and admired chefs in the business, Jeremy Lee, and celebrates the joy of his simple ingredient-led cooking.

As chef proprietor at Quo Vadis in London’s Soho, and previously at the Blueprint Café, Jeremy Lee has been creating ever-changing regional, seasonal and historically inspired British cuisine. He learned in the kitchens of some of the key creators of what’s often called the Modern British Cooking movement, the qualities of which he has made distinctively his own.

He chats to Sheila Dillon about the influences which have shaped his cooking, from growing up in a food-loving family in 1970s Dundee to the joy of shopping for the very best seasonal produce. Sheila hears about his reverence for his growers and suppliers, how he is inspiring a new generation of chefs, and of course, tastes his famous smoked eel sandwich.

Featuring chefs Simon Hopkinson and Charlie Hibbert, food writer Rachel Roddy, and Frances Smith of Appledore Salads.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

The latest calculations from economists point to an inflation rate for average shopping baskets of just under 12 per cent, but as Dan Saladino hears from has been retailers, analysts and supermarket customers, everyone is expecting that that figure to increase by the time winter arrives.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Meet the chef who ran away with the circus. Ols Halas is one of the longest-serving cast members at much-loved Gifford's Circus. As well as being head chef in Gifford's travelling restaurant 'Circus Sauce', he also drives the lorries, helps put up the big top, he's even performed. He lives and breathes the circus life.

Sheila Dillon meets Ols on tour in Gloucestershire on an August morning as the circus pulls into town. She hears stories from the travelling restaurant kitchen, as well as food stories from the dozens of caravans and wagons where the circus cast spend their summer months. And she hears how food has always been a pivotal part of circus life.

Presented by Sheila Dillon. Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

Photo: David Loftus.

Since the American Civil War to the present day, fried chicken has been used to create negative stereotypes of black people. These stereotypes and this history has seeped into today’s consciousness which has established a complicated relationship between chef and author Melissa Thompson and the food item. It’s a relationship which she wrote about and she joins Jaega Wise to explore her feelings and attitudes towards this fried dish.

Food historian Adrian Miller looks at the presence of fried chicken on the plantation fields in the Deep South and explains how the racial connotations of fried chicken and black people materialised in America.

We hear from Dr Kehinde Andrews who details the importance of having shared collective experiences of food and culture within communities. Dr Andrews explains how this experience strengthens the connection amongst people when faced in situations of being ‘othered’.

Melissa pairs up Maureen Tyne at her Caribbean food establishment in Brixton, South London. Maureen shows Melissa how she makes her special recipe for fried chicken and shares her love for the meal.

Presenters: Jaega Wise and Melissa Thompson Produced by Candace Wilson

In the UK poor diet is a worrying public health issue, and we rank one of the worst in Europe for levels of obesity, particularly among children. Reformulating the most unhealthy foods to reduce sugar, salt and fat is the food industry’s main strategy to turn things around, and this is echoed by the government. Reformulation has been going on for decades, and there has been some real progress recently, for example reducing sugar in soft drinks and some breakfast cereals. However, overall there is much work still to be done and government sugar reduction targets are way-off being met according to recent figures.

The focus on reformulation has always been on reducing the level of ‘bad’ nutrients in food. Now the concept of ‘ultra-processed’ food is calling that strategy into question. It defines food on the level of processing rather than on nutrients – if a product includes ingredients you wouldn’t find in your kitchen and was made in a factory, then it’s probably ultra-processed. UPF food makes up half of the average diet in the UK, and there is growing evidence to show that it’s very likely driving the rise in diet-related diseases, and the global obesity epidemic.

So when it comes to nutrients, what are the technical challenges for reformulating our food, and how far can this approach go in improving the quality of ultra-processed food? And if the problem really lies with processing rather than nutrients, do we need a different approach entirely?

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

As we mark 80 years since the D-Day assaults, Leyla Kazim gets a peek at what's thought to the be the world's only surviving unopened D-Day ration pack, and explores the food that fuelled the troops through the challenge ahead. She's heading back in time in one Wiltshire village that housed the famous "Band of Brothers" to find out what they were eating.. and she sits down to with two Army veterans to talk about their food memories, getting a taste of a genuine British ration pack along the way. Presenter Leyla Kazim Producer Tory Pope

Protein supplements have been around for a long time but recently it feels like they made the jump from a niche product for gym enthusiasts to something much more mainstream. We are seeing protein being added to all kinds of food products for example, from chocolate bars to cereal.

Jaega Wise wants to find out more about these products. Do we need them? What are they made of? How much protein should we be eating?

Jaega visits Balance festival in East London to observe how protein is taking over the wellness scene. She also talks to her partner Will who has been drinking protein shakes. She visits a factory where they make Form Protein – a more upmarket, vegan supplement.

We hear from Professor Stuart Phillips on the effectiveness of protein supplements and Dietitian Dr Linia Patel on the Refence Nutrient Intake – the amount of protein we are recommended to have every day.

Presenter: Jaega Wise Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan and Sam Grist

Dan Saladino talks with Sandor Katz about the diversity of fermentation around the world.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

The award winning and inspirational chef tells his food story to Dan Saladino. One of his mentors, Raymond Blanc, explains why Michael is one of the best chefs of his generation.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

In a world where our attention spans are getting shorter, where we are rewarded not for the attention we pay to others but the attention we receive – is it time we re-evaluated the value of attentive growing and farming, and mindful eating?

Could paying attention, as cheesemonger and podcast host Sam Wilkin argues, be the secret to great food and drink production and relishing what we consume on a daily basis?

Sam takes us to Westcombe Dairy, where he’s been following their transition to regenerative agriculture for the past year, as part of the Westcombe Project. We visit a pioneering island distillery in the Inner Hebrides, as well as growers and brewers at an inaugural organic food festival in the East Neuk of Fife.

The common thread that binds them? The belief that a more attentive approach has the power to transform the food system and improve our lives in the process.

Presented by Jaega Wise. Produced by Robbie Armstrong in Glasgow.

What difference would it make if more people rejected cheap bread made using the Chorleywood Process, and moved to eating 'better' bread, i.e bread with fewer ingredients? In this episode Sheila Dillon explores why some scientists, campaigners and academics believe we ought to be eating more 'proper' bread, and puts her body to the test to see what difference it could make.

Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and writer, Tim Spector shows Sheila how she can track her blood glucose levels using a sensor to see how her body responds to different kinds of bread, while at the UK Grain Lab event in Nottingham, Sheila meets bakers and campaigners to find out why they believe it matters what kind of bread we eat. In Hendon in North London, a bakery has started producing sourdough bread on a big scale, showing that scaling up production can be done. The bread is being sliced and bagged and sold in supermarkets, with the aim of increasing accessibility to those who cannot easily get to a local bakery.

Presented by Sheila Dillon Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Dan Saladino and Sheila Dillon dig deep into the details of the newly published Government Food Strategy.

Produced by Dan Saladino.

The city of Birmingham is about to launch its own ambitious Food System Strategy. It’s vision is to create a bold, fair, sustainable and prosperous food system and economy, where food choices are nutritious and affordable. The strategy faces many challenges – Birmingham has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the country, and worrying levels of food poverty with 6.8 % of residents reporting using food banks during lockdown.

Last week the government published its long-awaited Food Strategy for England – a policy paper responding to Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy, a landmark national review into the food system. Reaction has been mixed, with campaigners disappointed that many of the review’s bolder recommendations - like a tax on salt and sugar - haven’t been taken up, and no mention of a Food Bill. So in today’s programme Jaega Wise visits Birmingham to ask if cities could take up the mantle of improving what we eat, and talk to grassroots food groups about the change they want to see. Is it time for cities to step up and drive the food agenda, and far can they go in creating the radical change we need?

Presented by Jaega Wise and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

Dan Saladino meets people saving endangered foods and bringing diversity back to our diets.

Groups of scientists, chefs and artists are now finding pioneering ways to rethink the global food system. At the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew a programme of events called Food Forever involves exhibitions and installations exploring some of the biggest and most complex questions over the future of our food (including this fantasy world of food abundance by Australian artist Tanya Schultz (Pip & Pop), ranging from biodiversity loss and climate change to under utilised crops and enticing flavours.

Dr James Borrell, a research fellow at Kew, explains why a giant plant in south-western Ethiopia, a valuable source of food, called enset (aka 'false banana') is one of the stories we should all know. Designers, María Fuentenebro and Mario Mimoso (Sharp and Sour) describe the 'Museum of Endangered Food', also on display at Kew, which includes enset.

Meanwhile at The Serpentine Gallery,, artists Cooking Sections, is not only creating installations but influencing menus at restaurants such as Benugo's The Magazine.

Photo: When Flowers Dream, an installation by Pip & Pop, (photographer Roger Wooldridge).

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Sheila Dillon and judges Asma Khan and Michael Caines open nominations for the 2022 BBC Food & Farming Awards, which celebrate people across the UK who've changed lives for the better, through food and drink. To mark the ceremony being held in Wales for the first time, there will be a special new category this year - the BBC Cymru Wales Food Hero award.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

Falafels are a widely celebrated and much loved food that have become an everyday part of street food culture in many cities across Europe, the United States and the Middle East. Falafel is known for being cheap, easily available, and accessible - no matter what a person's class, background, religious belief or dietary requirements.

There have long been debates about whether falafel belongs or is authentic to any one nation or culture. Spoiler alert: this programme does not try to answer that question! What Leyla sets out to discover is just how different falafel can be depending on the cultural background of the person cooking it. For example, culturally-definitive recipes for the falafel itself, and specific salads, sauces and breads.

In this programme, we explore how falafel is tied up in a political story of food propaganda, and how it’s been used to create division between different nationalities. But also how the food has followed people to different countries at times of conflict, and still provides a constant reminder of good times and home.

We meet market stall traders in Shepherd's Bush who show the diverse make up of different falafel recipes. We meet the Syrian chef who lost a chain of successful restaurants selling falafel during the conflict in Syria. And a London chef who doesn’t understand why his patrons keep ordering it.

Presented by Leyla Kazim Produced by Robbie Wojciechowski

Jaega Wise heads to Glasgow to open the nominations for this year's BBC Food and Farming Awards, and to announce that the 2024 ceremony will be held in the city on December 2nd.

The head judge for 2024 is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, a long time supporter of the Awards, and there is a brand new award for those championing the best Scottish local produce with a strong connection to their community - BBC Scotland Local Food Hero, which will be judged by Dougie Vipond (Landward & The Great Food Guys) and Rachel Stewart (Out of Doors).

Another new face on the judging panel is social media star Max La Manna, a low-waste chef, who will be judging the Digital Creator Award.

On Jaega's mini-tour of Glasgow she visits past winner Matt Fountain from Freedom Bakery, has tea and scones at one of Glasgow's famous tearooms with food journalist Robbie Armstrong, visits the Old Fruitmarket where the Awards will be hosted, and she shares a Pizza Crunch with one of Glasgow's most famous chefs, Julie Lin.

To see the full list of awards and to nominate, go to bbc.co.uk/foodawards where you can also find the terms and privacy notice.

Nominations open Friday 7 June at 11am and close 23:59 Sunday 30 June 2024.

Presented by Jaega Wise Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Natalie Donovan

Dan Saladino and blacksmith Alex Pole explain how our food has been influenced by metals.

40 years ago the BBC broadcast a new TV cooking series called "Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking". It was a first, and showed audiences that Indian food did not rely on curry powder, and that dishes were different depending on what region of India they originated. But that's not all, the series and Madhur Jaffrey's subsequent books (she has written more than 30) had another effect; it made her a model for two generations of women with roots in India.

Today Sheila Dillon meets some of those prominent and hugely successful female chefs, restaurateurs, food writers and stylists who are currently working in the UK, to find out about their lives, and what they make of Madhur Jaffrey's legacy.

Asma Khan rose to fame when she was chosen as the first British chef to star in the Netflix series, Chef’s Table. She runs her London restaurant, Darjeeling Express, with an all-female staff.

Chetna Makan worked as a fashion designer in India before moving to the UK. She switched careers after making it to the semi-finals of the Great British Bake Off in 2014. She is now the author of 5 cookery books, and has more than 210,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Ravinder Bhogal is a chef, food writer and author of two books. She also runs the London restaurant, Jikoni, which she describes as being “proudly inauthentic”.

Romy Gill is a chef, broadcaster and food writer, and was one of the first Asian women in the UK to own her own restaurant.

Rukmini Iyer is a food stylist and writer and the author of the bestselling "Roasting Tin" series of books.

Sejal Sukhadwala is a London food writer. Her first book "The Philosophy of Curry" has just been published.

Presented by Sheila Dillon Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

In our world of globalised food, there are few things that have remained true local specialities, and the Staffordshire oatcake is one of them. This oatmeal, yeasted pancake is an institution in Stoke-on-Trent and surrounding area, but still hardly anyone beyond the Midlands seems to have heard of them. The oatcake has a history stretching back hundreds of years as a staple food for workers of the Staffordshire Potteries – it then suffered a dip in popularity from the 1960s which led to concerns about its future, but today we hear reports that local production is healthy, and even going up.

In the programme Leyla Kazim visits oatcake bakers in Stoke to hear how they’re keeping this much-loved local staple going strong. And we catch up with Glenn Fowler, the owner of the very last traditional ‘hole in the wall’ shop which closed in 2012, to find out how this Stoke institution lives on through its recipe. But as demand goes up, this is driving more automated production, so what could that mean for the traditional methods and the long-established recipes? And it is time for this overlooked oatmeal pancake to finally gain nationwide appeal?

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

No other tinned meat has had the worldwide cultural impact of SPAM. Though often denigrated in this country, it is celebrated across the world particularly in the Asia-Pacific where it became integrated into food cultures after The Second World War.

Jaega Wise explores this love of SPAM with Hawaiian chef Sheldon Simeon. She also meets Becky (Hanguk Hapa) in New Malden to talk about Budae Jjigae (army base stew), a dish born out of necessity, it is now a national comfort food.

SPAM also saw big increases in sales in the pandemic. As well as being a shelf stable and practical food, did our war nostalgia play a part in our renewed interest? Jaega talks to historian Dr Kelly Spring about how SPAM, gifted to Britain during the Second World War by the American’s, was initially received.

She also talks to Dr Duane Mellor from Aston University about the science and nutrition of tinned meat.

Archive of Stan Suffling and Walter Price is from the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive.

Presenter: Jaega Wise Produced in Bristol by Sam Grist

Jack Monroe, the food writer and poverty campaigner sits down in her living room in Southend-on-Sea to share her 'Life Through Food' with Leyla Kazim. It has been almost a decade since Jack first made a name for herself as a blogger and food writer - documenting life as an unemployed single mum. Her blog, A Girl Called Jack (now Cooking on a Bootstrap) first focussed on local politics, but became popular when she started sharing her costed out low budget recipes. Since then, she has written six cookery books, has written 10,000 tweets, and become a voice for those living in poverty in the UK.

Jack's most recent campaign against the way inflation data is recorded and presented, resulted in the Office for National Statistics saying it would do more to represent the experiences of people living on different incomes in the UK. It also led the supermarket chain Asda to bring back and expand it's budget range of products. Jack is currently working on creating her own 'Vimes Boots' index to document the way food prices have changed over the past decade for people living on lowest incomes.

In this programme, Leyla finds out what motivates Jack to keep speaking out about inequalities, and how she deals with social media backlashes. She talks about her early food heroes, the pleasure she gets from cooking, and why she believes there needs to be more equality and inclusivity in the food world.

Presented by Leyla Kazim Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Dan Saladino hears from cooks in Palermo, Marseille and Kyiv about Easter food traditions.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino

Dan Saladino speaks to food suppliers and farmers in Ukraine about the impact of war.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

A few months ago, Sheila Dillon opened a glass jar of chickpeas in her kitchen. Their taste was so different from those she had been eating for years from cans, she took to social media to find out why. The story that unfolded in the comments led back to the Spanish, and their way of eating beans and other legumes.

In this programme we meet the people who grow, select, process and trade beans, and hear of a culture that respects legumes, where home cooks know how to flavour them, often cook them from dry, and their many varieties are on display in markets and supermarkets.

Sheila accompanies Spanish food importer and expert, Monika Linton, as she visits her processed and dried bean suppliers in the Navarra and Salamanca regions of Spain. Monika first set up her company Brindisa, bringing food from Spain into the UK, 35 years ago. She says legumes are for the Spanish what pasta is for the Italians.

On the lentil fields of the Salamanca plains, we hear how farmers manage relatively small plots of land, and how the beans are used in rotation with other crops in order to both feed people, and nourish the soils.

However not all beans eaten in Spain are grown locally. In Madrid, Mario Castellanos from Legumbres Castellanos, his family business, explains why the country still relies heavily on imports from other nations.

Presented by Sheila Dillon Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

In the first of two programmes all about beans, Sheila Dillon asks if they could be the answer to our issues with health and global warming.

We're often told how eating less meat is crucial for a healthy lifestyle and a healthy planet. In response, supermarkets and food outlets have been adding more meat-free options, and whole plant-based product ranges, which are often highly processed. So what if there was another food that we could all do with eating a lot more of, that's relatively affordable, is healthy and can be good for soil health and the environment? For hundreds of years beans have had a reputation in the UK of being food for the poor, vegetarians, or as filler for stews and curries. Mainly sold pre-cooked in cans, the ranges have been growing in recent years, but by far the biggest seller are Baked Beans.

Someone who wants to change that is entrepreneur Amelia Christie-Miller, the founder of a new brand called Bold Bean Co. Sheila finds out why Amelia's beans that come in glass jars, taste so different from the ones she is used to eating from cans. The beans are imported from Spain, where they are a much bigger part of the culture. The owner of Spanish restaurant chain Bar44, Owen Morgan demonstrates how to make them the main event; Dietitian and nutritionist Dr Megan Rossi from Kings College London explains how the can also improve our gut health; and Dr Pete Iannetta from the James Hutton Institute, and writer and grower Susan Young (author of "Growing Beans: A Diet for Healthy People and Planet") say we should all be considering growing more beans in order to reap the benefits for our soils and health.

Presented by Sheila Dillon Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

The price of food is rising alongside fuel, energy and other costs, and experts are warning that households face the biggest squeeze on disposable incomes for at least 30 years. On average the lowest income families spend twice as much on food and housing bills as the richest families, so increasing food price inflation will disproportionately affect families already struggling to get by, according to the Resolution Foundation.

As millions more people are on the brink of being pushed into food poverty, the food industry faces a turning point. The publication of a government white paper responding to the recommendations of The National Food Strategy is expected soon. The strategy’s assessment was dramatic – that Britain needs to change what it eats and how it produces food, in order to reverse the damage it does to our health and the environment.

In today’s programme Sheila Dillon is joined by three guests to discuss the true cost of our food, and some of the issues we face in reforming the system. In these extreme conditions we now live in, how can we provide everyone with a decent diet that will underpin the UK as a healthy nation? With Tim Benton, Research Director of the Environment and Society Programme at Chatham House and Professor of Population Ecology at the University of Leeds; Kathleen Kerridge, anti-food poverty campaigner and Chair of the Lived Experience Panel at The Food Foundation; and Professor Corinna Hawkes, Director of the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Danny Trejo is a Hollywood legend appearing in hundreds of films mostly playing tough guys, convicts and henchmen. He has starred in some of the greatest action films of all time like Con Air with John Malkovich and Nicolas Cage and Heat with Robert De Nero and Al Pacino.

Life wasn’t easy for Danny growing up. He started taking hard drugs and committing serious crimes from a very young age. He ended up in some of the most violent prisons in America but through finding God and sobriety turned his life around. He became a drugs counsellor and through a series of unlikely events worked his way into Hollywood as an actor.

At 80 he is also the owner of a chain of taco restaurants as well as a number of food and drink brands. In the programme Jaega meets him in the last branch of Trejo’s Tacos and talks to him about his memories of food growing up, brewing hooch in prison and filming Old El Paso adverts in Mexico.

We also hear from food historian and writer Chloe-Rose Crabtree about why eating tacos in London has become a thorny issue for Americans and BBC entertainment reporter Colin Paterson on the history of celebrity restaurants.

Presented by Jaega Wise

Produced by Sam Grist for BBC Audio in Bristol

Dairy alternatives with real milk proteins but no use of cows are now becoming a reality. In the US you can now buy animal-free dairy ice cream, and around the world scientists and food technologists are aiming to create lab-cultured dairy products indistinguishable from the real thing. This is possible through precision fermentation, a process which uses genetically engineered microbes to grow the proteins in a bioreactor, which is how insulin and rennet are already produced. The proteins are then separated and used to create products like milk and cheese from scratch.

Companies creating precision fermentation-made dairy believe it could play an important part in reducing the environmental impact of traditional dairy production, and provide a much needed source of alternative protein. But as this new industry emerges it’s still not known how consumers will take to animal free dairy, and if it can scale up enough to make the products widely available and affordable to make an impact.

In this programme, Leyla Kazim visits a company in London creating an animal-free cheese, and asks if it can ever be the same as a traditionally-made product. And as this new industry grows – how far could it go in making dairy more sustainable?

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol

Dan Saladino looks at the war in Ukraine through the lens of food. Are people already going hungry? And what does conflict mean for the millions dependent on Ukrainian wheat?

Fundraising for people impacted by the war is already underway; Cook for Ukraine https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cookforukraine, and, as featured in the programme there is the World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/

This week's Radio Appeal came on behalf of the Disasters Emergency Committee https://www.dec.org.uk/

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Can Scotland become a nation where people from every walk of life ‘take pride and pleasure in the food they produce, buy, cook, serve, and eat each day’?

Sheila Dillon and her Scottish producer Robbie Armstrong assess the country’s health and food system, and find out what opportunities and hurdles lie ahead as the Good Food Nation Bill is introduced to the Scottish Parliament.

Sheila speaks to Scotland’s national chef Gary Maclean about the past, present and future of Scottish cuisine, while Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands Mairi Gougeon sets out what she hopes to achieve with the bill.

She meets Pete Ritchie from the food policy NGO Nourish to hear why he believes the bill does not go far enough and should include a ‘right to food’. She visits social enterprise food business Locavore to speak to its founder Reuben Chesters, before exploring the complexities of food poverty with author of Feed Your Family for £20 a Week, Lorna Cooper.

Robbie heads to his home town in the Scottish Borders to speak to Bosco Santimano from a social enterprise teaching basic cooking skills, and visits Food Punks, a project run by young chefs in the town of Peebles.

Produced by Robbie Armstrong in Glasgow.

Dan Saladino meets the plant hunters searching for the world's lost and forgotten coffee varieties and Michael Pollan, author of This is Your Mind on Plants, explains how caffeine helped usher in the modern world.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Ainsley Harriott joins Jaega Wise to share his 'Life Through Food' from his kitchen in South London. Ainsley is one of the UK's most recognisable TV chefs; after training at Westminster College he worked at a number of London's hotels and restaurants - including The Long Room at Lords Cricket Ground where he became head chef. In the early 90s he got his first broadcasting gigs - on BBC Radio 5, and shortly afterwards "tv came knocking".

Over the past 25 years he has hosted countless programmes - including Can't Cook Won't Cook and Ready Steady Cook for a decade. He has presented series for US and South African television, been a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, and was awarded an MBE in 2020. His latest TV series, 'Ainsley's Good Mood Food' is all about cooking food to boost your mood.

In this interview, Ainsley takes us back to the early days of family dinner parties, a summer in France, and his journey to TV stardom. He also discusses what it's like to be the subject of many many memes and where he finds his seemingly perpetual energy. Jaega also speaks to school friend and the other half of Ainsley's 90s pop group The Calypso Twins, Paul Boross, and hears from Ainsley superfan, Radio 1 Breakfast DJ Greg James, who's obsession with Ainsley turned him into a viral sensation.

Presented by Jaega Wise Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Jaega Wise explores how environmental-impact labels on food and drink products could help lower the carbon footprint of the food industry. Although there’s been an increase in the number of companies using different kinds of carbon and eco labels, they still appear on a small minority of products. There are growing calls for there to be a unified system for calculating the environmental impact of food production – one that not only measures carbon emissions, but also other impacts like water use and biodiversity loss, all using the same internationally agreed method so shoppers can compare products fairly and accurately. So what would it take for environmental labelling to become widespread? Jaega Wise talks to non-profit organisation Foundation Earth about their plans to establish an eco-impact label that could be used across Europe. We look at how a more harmonised approach could encourage more companies to get on board, increase public trust, and trigger change across food supply chains as companies look for more eco-friendly ways of producing, manufacturing, transporting and packaging food.

Presented by Jaega Wise and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Dan Saladino goes in search of the history, meaning and spirit of wassails and cider. In Somerset he takes part in a village wassail sung door to door and one sung in an orchard.

Contributors: The Drayton village wassailers. Gerard Tucker, wassail master of ceremonies. Nell Leyshon (novelist and dramatist, play: Folk). James Crowden, author, Cider Country: How an Ancient Craft Became a Way of Life.

Music: Drayton Wassail (as documented by Cecil Sharp in 1903) Tam Lin, Fairport Convention (1968) Bruton Town, Pentangle (1968)

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

In this episode Sheila Dillon is joined by a chef, restaurateur, author and campaigner, Angela Hartnett, for another in the programme’s series of Lives told through Food.

Angela Hartnett is seen as an icon in the food industry - she started out learning on the job in Cambridge - and later rose up working for Gordon Ramsey, first at The Aubergine, and later at the Connaught Hotel, where she earned her first Michelin star.

During that time she started to become a familiar face on British Television, appearing regularly on Hell’s Kitchen and the Great British Menu.

In 2010, Angela bought Ramsay out of the restaurant she still runs today - Murano - where she received another Michelin star.

In January 2022, Angela was awarded an OBE for her services to the hospitality industry, and for the work she did for the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this conversation, Angela reflects on her campaigning, changes in the industry, and family life.

Presented by Sheila Dillon Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Dan Saladino explores keto to understand the appeal of this low carb way of eating. Featuring Gary Taubes (book) The Case for Keto), GP Dr David Unwin, Anna Tebbs (The Green Chef), Prof. Mike Lean (Glasgow University), Panagiotis Kottas (KeOntrack) and Prof. Helen Cross (Great Ormond Street Hospital).

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Gabriella D’Cruz, from Goa, wants to improve diets, transform livelihoods and protect the planet using an often-overlooked marine vegetable - seaweed.

Ruth Alexander speaks to the 29-year-old about her big plans for the underwater crop, and her hope that it could bring lasting economic and environmental change to India’s coastal communities.

Gabriella’s passion and her project’s potential saw her chosen by a panel of international judges as the winner of The Food Chain Global Youth Champion Award 2021.

Produced by Simon Tulett originally for The Food Chain on the BBC World Service

Sheila Dillon hears stories of how headteachers are transforming food in their schools in difficult economic conditions, as well as how flagship universal free primary school meal policies in Scotland and London are playing out so far.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Jaega Wise and her co-presenters start the New Year having a go on TikTok after #FoodTok raked in billions of views in 2021. What, if anything, can be learned from the app, which dishes up creator-made videos in three-minute-long bursts? The presenters are joined by TikTok Chef Poppy O'Toole, who posts as PoppyCooks to her two million followers.

From turning ordinary cooks into stars, to setting off trends for kitchen gadgets, viral recipes, and #WhatIeatinaday getting millions of views, people using TikTok are going mad for gastronomy.

However unlike other social media sites where picture-perfect images of food are shared, TikTok takes viewers into ordinary kitchens, and seems to celebrate (mostly) the creation of lavish looking dishes with seemingly very little skill or effort.

Food on TikTok has also become tied in with the ASMR genre (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) where creators deliberately emphasise the sounds and textures involved in cooking.

So could TikTok be the inspiration for a new generation of cooks? And can the more mature cook learn anything new? Or is the so-called Wild West of the web’s version of cookery too unwieldy to properly inform? Will the hype around influencers and their inevitable marketing tie-ins put an end to any ‘authenticity’ on there? And is the site doing enough to protect those with eating disorders?

Presented by Jaega Wise Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Leyla Kazim dives into the world of rapid grocery delivery, one of the newest trends to hit the world of food retail. In scarcely more than a year, a wave of new companies like Getir, Weezy, Gorillas, Jiffy, Zapp and Gopuff has arrived in cities across the UK which can deliver products to your door in as little as 10 minutes. It’s a sector that’s raised billions of pounds of investment and wants to disrupt the grocery market – so what impact could it have on the way we buy food?

Key to the ultra-fast delivery speeds are 'dark stores', or hyperlocal fulfilment centres, which have been growing in number since the start of the pandemic – Leyla visits one run by Gorillas, and talks to their UK General Manager Eddie Lee about their plans for expansion. To consider the future of the rapid grocery delivery companies and what impact they are having on the rest of the food retail world, we hear from: Matt Truman, co-founder and CEO of specialist retail and consumer investor, True; Chris Noice, Communications Director at the Association of Convenience Stores; George Nott, Technology Editor at The Grocer; and Professor Annabelle Gower, Director of the Centre of Digital Economy at the University of Surrey.

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Some of the biggest names in the food world join Dan and Sheila with their favourite Christmas dishes, including Claudia Roden, Jeremy Lee and Paula McIntyre. Noble Rot's Dan Keeling selects the wine.

Presented by Dan Saladino and Sheila Dillon. Produced by Dan Saladino.