The Chicken Run

Panorama: The Chicken Run was broadcast on Thursday, 22 May 2003 at 21:00 BST on BBC One.

This Panorama special investigates a major food scandal.

How the frozen chicken industry in Holland which ships over a thousand tonnes of chicken into the UK each week routinely pumps the meat full of water to make it weigh more thus swelling profits.

But to keep the water in, there is a magic ingredient - protein additives.

Shockingly some are made from the remains of pigs and cows. Since this was discovered, alarmed food regulators have been trying to clamp down.

But Panorama can reveal the breathtaking lengths to which some protein manufacturers are now going to keep adding cow and pig to your chicken - without you, or the regulators, even knowing it.

Production team:
Reporter: Betsan Powys
Producer: Howard Bradburn
Associate Producer: Matthew Mervyn Jones
Deputy Editors: Andrew Bell, Sam Collyns
Editor: Mike Robinson