Cherry Healey fronts this BBC Scotland trio of 60-minute specials that began on 15 February 2012 and quietly ended the following July. Each episode picks a trolley-load of staples, from breakfast cereal to ready meals, then reverse-engineers them in laboratory glassware to show what is actually swallowed when shoppers reach for the red-label bargain.
Critics were unsparing. Lucy Mangan in The Guardian labelled the programme “a bag of utter balls”, frustrated by graphics that reduced food science to primary-coloured slogans, while Robert James Taylor of the Shropshire Star called the experience “mind-bogglingly dumb” and winced at jaunty cutaways of Healey grinning beside conveyor belts. Yet Simon Usborne in The Independent conceded the show delivered a “public service pill worth swallowing” for spelling out salt loads and hidden sugars in household brands.
The format never escaped the shadow of its own simplifications, but Healey’s wide-eyed curiosity kept the project afloat long enough to earn two further episodes in 2013. After that, the BBC returned the shelf space to cookery competitions.
Production Details
BBC One / 3 Episodes / 2012
Main Cast
