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The Food Programme: Yes We Can: What do the tins we eat say about the UK?

Yes We Can: What do the tins we eat say about the UK?

BBC Radio 4 - The Food Programme, Yes We Can: What do the tins we eat say about the UK?

Jack Monroe and Sheila Dillon ask whether tinned foods have an image problem in the UK.

Stories from the store cupboard. Jack Monroe and Sheila Dillon discuss whether it's time we showed our favourite tins of food some love.

Baked beans, tinned pies, corned beef, creamed tomato soup, plum tomatoes, ackee, pineapple chunks and condensed milk.

Our store cupboards are bursting with tins of food, they provide comfort, cheap family meals, quick lunches and easy dinners. Maybe even a sure stock of ingredients as Brexit edges closer. 

Yet over the years, the UK market is dwindling. Stats show young people are less interested in tinned fruit and fish. And then there's the image problem. Tinned food has a reputation in the UK it's struggling to shake off. Cheap, unhealthy. Fine for those making do with tiny budgets, not if you can afford the fresh equivalents.

As Madrid born Patrick Martinez found out first hand when he set up a bespoke tinned fish company in Liverpool, we have a funny relationship with tinned food in the UK. A relationship quite unlike our continental neighbours. We deeply love these foods, but we might not admit our affection openly. 

In this programme Sheila Dillon speaks to food writer Jack Monroe about the politics of tinned food and why she thinks we ought to cook and love the tinned foods lurking in our cupboards.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.
Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

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