The Food Programme

Since January 2025, thousands of tonnes of common octopus, usually found in the Mediterranean, have been landed by fisherman off the south coast of England. But it’s still not a regular feature on UK menus. In this...

Leyla Kazim revisits some of The Food Programme's most memorable stories to ask: what happened next? From 500kg of eels stranded in a holding tank in Gloucestershire and English olive oil being pressed in Lincolnshire...

Cacao prices broke all records and then crashed, Dan Saladino explores the fallout for farmers and the chocolate industry with Jack Thompson reporting from the Ivory Coast. Produced and presented by Dan Saladino

They’re in your chocolate, your gelato, even your coffee - pistachios seem to be everywhere at the moment - bolstered by the craze for Dubai Chocolate. In this episode Leyla Kazim asks what happens when the world seems...

Chef and broadcaster Romy Gill heads to the pavilion to explore cricket's relationship with food. She discovers that the supposedly British institution of the cricket tea was in fact a tradition imported from Australia...

Why did obesity become a global problem? Professor of Diet and Population Health Susan Jebb explores a heavy history, our changing relationship with food and reasons for optimism. She believes we live in an...

Fifteen years after her cancer diagnosis, Sheila Dillon asks what role food could play in cancer treatment, prevention and recovery - and why it is still so often overlooked. Earlier this year, the Government published...

Sheila Dillon heads out on the highway to investigate the world of food at motorway service stations. Historically they have been a place viewed as a functional stop-off for a "tea and a pee" and often maligned for the...

Sheila Dillon looks at the plans to overhaul England’s school food standards, from cutting back on fried food, puddings and processed meat to serving more fruit and veg. She hears from pupils, caterers and campaigners...

The food industry is predicting double digit inflation and are calling on the Government to act. Dan Saladino asks what lies behind the gloomy forecast, who will be most affected by price increases and if anything can...

The BBC Food & Farming Awards come from Belfast this year. Jaega Wise heads to the Balmoral Show, the largest agri-food show in Northern Ireland, to find out what makes this such an amazing place for food and farming...

Sheila Dillon visits fruit and veg growers across the country to ask what should the government put in its landmark plan to grow more in the UK. With war in the Middle East driving up fertiliser and energy prices and a...

Hallyu - the Korean Wave - is taking over. With dramas and films like Squid Game and K-Pop Demon Hunters topping the Netflix charts, K-beauty products filling TikTok feeds and chemist shop shelves, and the global tour...

Dan Saladino reports from Parabere Forum, a gathering of food storytellers, featuring Olia Hercules on the Ukrainian cooks who inspired her, indigenous Australian chef Mindy Woods on saving First Nations' cuisine and...

Jaega Wise meets chef and broadcaster Matt Tebbutt at home in South Wales, to discuss his "Life Through Food". Matt has been presenting Saturday Kitchen Life on BBC One for almost a decade, but before he was a TV...

Francesco Fiore is a chef and Catering Manager at Milton Keynes University Hospital, and over the last few years has made some remarkable changes to the food experience for patients and staff. Awarded the title of...

Sheila Dillon discusses the rise of eating disorders among young women as part of Radio 4’s “About the Girls” series, which is hearing from teens across the UK about life in 2026. As the number of young girls suffering...

Generation Z, young adults aged roughly 18 to 30, are coming of age in a world defined by uncertainty. With difficult job and housing markets many are experiencing prolonged adolescence, often living with parents far...

Dan Saladino follows up the debate on if the eel should be off the menu. Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Much focus goes on food growing and selling, but is the missing link in increasing the UK's food self sufficiency actually food processing? It might be all about Ultra Processed Foods in the news, but there is another...

Should we be taking water more seriously? The emergence of the water sommelier would suggest so. Jaega Wise visits a Cheshire restaurant that now offers its own water menu as well as a Peak District pub with a water bar...

Leyla Kazim reports from cork country in Portugal - where up to 10,000 of hectares of cork oak trees are being lost every year, despite laws protecting them from being cut down. Climate change is putting new stresses on...

Shaped by centuries of colonialism and challenged by a changing climate, what is the future of food for the Philippines? Recent typhoons and floods were the worst seen in decades and there has been huge biodiversity...

In this edition Sheila Dillon explores the creativity of chefs, and asks how it’s being affected by the ongoing cost of living crisis. For Sheila, creativity in cooking is one of the pleasures we often take for granted...

A year after sharing a £10 supper with 200 strangers in Copenhagen’s Absalon - an old church turned community hub - Sheila asks whether that experience could be recreated in the UK. After all, communal meals here are...