Dispatches: Supermarket Secrets Part 1 and 2 
http://www.channel4.com/news/microsites/S/supermarket_secrets/
How and what we eat has radically changed over the past few decades with the all-consuming rise of the supermarket. But what price are we paying for the homogenised, cheap and convenient food that supermarkets specialise in? In a two-part programme, journalist Jane Moore investigates how supermarkets have affected the food on our plates and reveals the tell-tale signs that the food we buy may not have been grown in the way we think.
This year Britain’s shoppers are expected to spend around £70 billion on food. 56% of this total expenditure will take place in supermarkets. These films ask how supermarkets manage to push prices down and profits up. Are farmers and growers being pressured to produce food in a manner that leads to it being less nutritious than in the past? And what of the conditions that livestock is reared in today?
The first of the two programme features secret filming which uncovers the horrific conditions inside a chicken broiler house preparing chickens for a company which supplies all the major supermarkets. One study carried out by a professor from Cambridge University revealed that 82% of chickens bought in supermarkets had hockburns – a tell-tale sign of poor animal welfare caused by sitting in litter. Jane Moore shows how to examine chickens for hockburns.
Programme two meets the organic potato farmer who feeds much of his crop to his cows because, he says, the supermarkets deem his produce to be insufficiently cosmetically pleasing. The film also hears from a toxicologist about the levels of pesticide residues in supermarket fresh produce; reveals how dairy cattle are now factory farmed and why packaged fruit and vegetables from your local supermarket may be more expensive that you think – and not as good for you.
With contributions from leading experts including Joanna Blythman, Professor Tim Lang, Dr Vyvyan Howard and Felicity Lawrence.
I don’t know why I do this to myself as I find the scenes of animal abuse extremely disturbing but it’s better to know what goes on behind closed doors instead of having the “ignorance is bliss” attitude. I just want to rescue them all. It covered all kinds of food supplied by supermarkets though including ready-meals, fruit and veg, milk etc. None of it was particularly new to me or particularly good news. Basically supermarkets are evil but we probably know that already deep down.
