Iain's Rotting Food Show
21st September 2010
Dr Iain Haysom, Course Leader in Diet and Health, has become the
microbiology expert on Channel 4’s new show Food. The series of six
programmes, running this autumn, looks at every aspect of what we eat,
including food storage and spoilage.
Iain was invited by the show’s producers to develop a ‘Rotting Room’,
where a range of foods are left at room temperature for up to four weeks
and the decomposition is filmed with time lapse cameras. Iain’s role has been to oversee this experiment, take samples of the bacteria and mould for laboratory analysis and discuss the results on camera.
Six different boxes of foods were used – bread, fruit and veg, meat, fish,
dairy products and takeaways. Iain says the effects on the meat and fish
were especially spectacular:
“Within a couple of days flies had found these foods and were laying their
eggs. It meant that in less than a week their boxes were overrun with
maggots! This and the microbial decomposition created a horrendous
smell.”
Iain’s ‘Rotting Room’ has resulted in some very graphic images of natural
decomposition and advice from him to viewers on how to store their food
safely at home.
The first hour-long programme was screened on 15 September 2010. Food continues every Wednesday at 8pm on Channel 4.
