I wondered this a lot in the sausage task, then thought it again this week.
Do the contestants really learn how to make tasty crisps/sausages in about half an hour, then really sell them to random cafes in London or Germany?

I find it really hard to believe that in these crazy food hygiene regulation days cafes buy food from people they've never met before, who are only in business for a day.

I know some of the contacts are set up by Sugar in advance, but what about the others, how do you think that works? Do they all actually know its a tv programme then get their money back from the production team and not sell the food on to their customers?

The sight of some of the sausages coming out of the machine, would any business really buy them???

Or am I a big cynic and they do actually make and sell decent food to real businesses?

They would certainly know it's a TV programme, given the presence of the camera crew and the disclaimers they'd have to sign before being on it.

No, they don't.

Food hygiene regs seem to be mostly about the cleanliness of the work areas, equipment used and staff hygiene. In real life they'd have to be properly trained. For TV they just need to be supervised by people who are properly trained.

With the crisps they were shown adding flavouring to the samples, so it's not really too much of a stretch to imagine those crisps went into to the bagging machine. So their input was basically putting the cooked crisps in a big bag together with the flavouring and giving it a good shake.

OTOH, the sausages they were seen turning out looked rubbish compared to the ones they sold, so unless they got much better with practice they had unseen help. But then most tasks are clearly aided, not just the food related ones.