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An inspector calls

Guns, knives, and safety alarms. Being a food safety inspector is a risky business.

Restaurateurs with guns, chefs wielding knives, and severed heads in bin bags. Life as a food inspector is a lot more fraught than you might think.

Emily Thomas meets three food safety officers from around the globe who reveal what it’s like to be one of the most feared people in the industry.

They have the power to close a restaurant. Some can even make arrests. No wonder they’ve got some stories that seem to belong more in a mafia film than a food show. And the danger doesn’t end there. It’s not just their lives at risk – but yours too. We hear about some of the unsavoury things that happen to our food behind kitchen doors - and the sneaky tactics used to conceal them.

(Photo: A rat peers into a cup. Credit: Getty Images/ BBC)

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26 minutes

Last on

Sun 14 Apr 201907:32GMT
BBC World Service

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Broadcasts

  • Thu 11 Apr 201902:32GMT
    BBC World Service Online, Europe and the Middle East & West and Central Africa only
  • Thu 11 Apr 201903:32GMT
    BBC World Service UK DAB/Freeview
  • Thu 11 Apr 201904:32GMT
    BBC World Service Australasia, Americas and the Caribbean, South Asia & East Asia only
  • Thu 11 Apr 201910:32GMT
    BBC World Service except West and Central Africa
  • Thu 11 Apr 201917:32GMT
    BBC World Service Australasia
  • Thu 11 Apr 201921:32GMT
    BBC World Service except Europe and the Middle East
  • Thu 11 Apr 201922:32GMT
    BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East
  • Sun 14 Apr 201907:32GMT
    BBC World Service

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