LGC analyst Michael Walker contributes to Food Unwrapped

Michael Walker, Referee Analyst for the Government Chemist programme, was featured on the ‘Takeaway Special’ of Channel 4’s acclaimed programme Food Unwrapped.

Host Matt Tebbutt tackled the subject of meat authenticity in takeaway meals and sought to have samples from 15 dishes tested for species confirmation. Michael presented the results of the testing and found one-third of the dishes were dishonestly labelled.

“This is depressingly familiar,” Michael said. “It’s deceiving the public, and it allows deceptive practices, fraud and food crime to creep into the system. Nobody wants that.”

The episode, originally aired Monday 4 February, covered many issues in the changing world of takeaways. Michael said the show is "quirky, humourous and an accurate treatment of the science". He added, "It was a pleasure to work with the Food Unwrapped team exposing the still all-too-familiar species substitution in the food chain."

Viewers in the UK can watch the episode in its entirety on the All4 platform here.