‘Rotten’: A Food Documentary Series That Serves Up Something Fresh

'Rotten’: A Food Documentary Series That Serves Up Something Fresh - Rotten delivers one thing I never thought I’d see in a food documentary series – drama.

The six-episode series begins each episode by describing the process everyday food items go through before it makes it to our plate.

Take its first episode on honey for instance where viewers enter the busy, or should I say, buzzy, world of beekeeping. From getting stung to making sure the bees have the optimum environment to produce honey, viewers are introduced to the little-known toil and labour beekeepers go through to churn out this golden elixir.

Each episode zeroes in on one food item – honey, peanuts, garlic, chicken, milk and fish. At about nearly an hour-long per episode, it sounds like a cumbersome watch at first, but after the documentary lays the foundation, explaining how the foods are made, it gives viewers something to really chew on.

Layer by layer, the documentary peels open the behind-the-scenes drama that goes on among the various stakeholders in the food industry. And it’s absolutely riveting.

In the first episode, we learn that production of honey has slowed down in the past few years. Yet interestingly, there is a surplus of honey in the market. Where is all this extra honey coming from?

Two words: honey adulteration. Cheap syrups are mixed together with real honey, and sold as pure honey.


Tests can be done to determine whether a batch of honey is the real deal or not but every so often, honey producers find a way to outsmart even the latest, state-of-the-art technology.

And that’s just the drama that has to do with honey!

Another interesting episode sees a garlic producer trying to find out how a competitor is able to sell pre-peeled garlic cloves at such a low price.

After doing some snooping around, he alleges the company gets prisoners in China to peel the garlic for them.

In another episode, multiple barns filled with thousands of chicks are mysteriously found dead one morning, causing a loss of thousands of dollars to a group of poultry farmers.

The evidence suggests perhaps a mysterious hand was at work, trying to jeopardise their businesses.

Whether or not these allegations are true, the documentary tries to provide both sides of the story, telling the story of the food producers making the accusations and reaching out to the accused party for comments.

Often, food documentaries revolve around telling us about the foods we should and shouldn’t eat; the kinds of harmful pesticides, preservatives, colouring that go into them; or the latest diet fad.

Of course, those documentaries are important in pointing out the ingredients and food trends that could endanger our bodies.

But Rotten achieves a no less important objective – it sheds light on the possibly unlawful and unethical practices that affect the livelihood of the people that help put food on our table.

At the very least, viewers gain an understanding of the various issues players in the food industry face.

As consumers, we walk into supermarkets, happily poking and prodding a piece of chicken or fruit, oblivious to the hard work that went into getting each food item on the shelf.

We all love watching a scandal unfold. This one, unexpectedly, is about food. And boy is it juicy.