Food Detectives

Scientist Prof Alice Roberts, chef Tom Kerridge and journalist Sean Fletcher dish up the plain facts about our food. We spend a staggering four and a half billion pounds on diet drinks a year. Do they help us keep the weight off? Alice Roberts finds out about the latest research which suggests that that drinking artificially sweetened drinks can encourage us to eat more than we might expect. Tom Kerridge is on a mission to help with another kitchen fail. This time he's in Glasgow to sort out a viewer's Yorkshire puddings and help them cook perfect Yorkies every time. The supermarkets offer own-brand products across a range stretching from basic standard to premium. But is it worth paying for a premium product or is a money-saving basic as good for our health and our taste buds? To find out, our consumer journalist Sean Fletcher is dissecting a store cupboard favourite - baked beans.

Last year, one story about food and health dominated the headlines and it was the claim that processed meat causes cancer. In this episode, Alice Roberts investigates the chemical that's causing the problem and asks how worried should we be about eating meat? Also do aphrodisiacs actually work? Forget oysters, champagne and strawberries as there's no evidence they work but research does point to a couple of substances that could claim to be aphrodisiacs. Tom Kerridge reveals the store cupboard essentials that as a professional chef he won't be without and he answers a cry for help from a viewer whose risotto always ends up a disaster. And our consumer journalist Sean Fletcher pulls apart the ingredients in cheap and expensive mayonnaise to find out what we're really paying for.

In the penultimate episode, Alice carries out an experiment to test the claim that chilies can help people lose weight.

The final programme of the series sees Alice and a group of diners enjoy a culinary experience with a difference.

In this new field of scientific research, Sensory Gastronomy, the music, lighting and even the shape of the plates are changed throughout the meal to see what effect this has on perceptions of how the food tastes.

Tom reveals the secret to perfect roasties every time, along with another of his trade secrets - how to transform a simple piece of fish into something any professional chef would be proud of.

With the help of food scientists and a panel of taste testers, Sean investigates the ingredients in the great British banger. He wants to find out if supermarket own-brand basic sausages are ever as healthy and tasty as the expensive premium variety.