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00:00They say that breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day.
00:07Lovely stuff. Put it on me tab.
00:09You haven't got a tab.
00:10That's what they all say.
00:13So, when I'm working hard hosting the UK's premier factory-based TV show,
00:19I couldn't agree more.
00:20And this factory's massive, so I need to keep my strength up.
00:24Can someone throw us a couple of sausages on?
00:27In the UK, we crunch through, get this, a billion boxes of cereal every year.
00:37So, luckily, I've come to one of Europe's biggest factories
00:41that's dedicated to making the stuff.
00:48Gonna take a big bottle of milk.
00:51Everything here is supersized.
00:54Holy granola, that is big.
00:58With massive machines.
01:00Where is everybody?
01:02And an automated process...
01:04Hey, get out.
01:06...making multigrain cereal.
01:09And while I find out exactly what goes into your breakfast bowls,
01:15Cherry's drawn the short straw because she's learning how to clean up.
01:21Oh, yeah, I'm getting down and dirty.
01:24No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
01:26Discovering the do's and don'ts of dishwashers.
01:29You don't rinse.
01:30We don't rinse plates.
01:31And historian Ruth Goodman is in search of the man from Sheffield
01:37who revolutionized spoons.
01:41So, he doesn't set out to make a better spoon.
01:44This is a man who wants to make a better gun.
01:46This factory produces 120 million boxes of cereal every year.
01:57And I'm gonna show you how they make every single flake.
02:00This is Inside the Factory.
02:03Hi, Gene. Very important.
02:24Hi, Gene. Again.
02:29That's the wrong one.
02:32Where's the water? There it is.
02:34Whatever happens are just taps.
02:36Tap, you're turned on.
02:37Bit of soap.
02:38Lovely.
02:39Now it's all this like that.
02:41That taps now turn into an hand dryer.
02:44What a time to be alive.
02:46And then we're going over this bit now.
02:47It's like Blackpool Funhouse.
02:49Here we go.
02:54And this is like council swimming baths when you're a kid.
02:57Get your feet in there with hot verrucas and toenails.
03:00A bit more sanitiser.
03:02Give them a wipe.
03:04Through the thing.
03:05Absolutely spotless.
03:06This is the Kellogg's factory in Wrexham.
03:19And they've been making cereal here for almost half a century.
03:23That's a lot of balls of Wrexham.
03:25Wake up, it's a beautiful morning.
03:28Feel the sunshine and hold your eyes.
03:32This factory runs around the clock.
03:35A temple of high tech.
03:37Nice.
03:38Making many of the nation's favourite cereals like brown flakes and fruit and fibre.
03:43Wake up.
03:44Wake up.
03:45Wake up.
03:46Wake up.
03:47But today, I'm following Special K.
03:49And I'm learning how they create these 440-gram boxes.
03:55Got one.
03:56Come here.
03:57Wake up.
03:58Wake up.
03:59It's a beautiful morning.
04:01In the blue sunshine.
04:03And for the ride.
04:04Wake up.
04:05Wake up.
04:06And to get my morning going, I'm trekking across this massive site to ingredients intake.
04:11Wake up.
04:12It's a beautiful morning.
04:14Now, excuse all the belts and buckles.
04:17For the ride.
04:18Here's Craig Williams, who's in charge, to explain all.
04:22For the sunshine and for the ride.
04:24Morning, Craig.
04:25You all right, pal?
04:26Morning, Paddy.
04:27You OK?
04:28Yeah, yeah.
04:29Well, I am OK, but I've got to be honest.
04:30I've never started a show in this kind of get-up.
04:33It's a little bit Fifty Shades of Grey.
04:34What are we doing?
04:36Well, all will be revealed.
04:37So, we put all our tankers in here.
04:39And this one contains rice.
04:41Which, for me, is a little bit strange.
04:43Because, obviously, there's certain cereals that are just rice.
04:46But I didn't think this particular cereal would contain it.
04:5047% of the flake is actually rice.
04:53Can I have a look?
04:54Yeah, that's why we're wearing these Paddy.
04:56Let's go up and have a gander's.
05:01Like Challenge Annika, this, innit?
05:03Are you on my bum?
05:04Right then, we'll connect one of these to the back of your harness so we don't lose you.
05:10OK, yeah.
05:11Don't want you falling off the tanker.
05:13Turns out the harness isn't for fun, but for safety.
05:17It's like a seatbelt, innit?
05:19It gets you like that.
05:20Yeah, that's it.
05:21Yeah, yeah.
05:22Because we're climbing on top of the tanker to take a sample of the rice delivery.
05:27Yeah.
05:28If you want to do it.
05:29Yeah, yeah, can do.
05:32Oh, that's a first for me.
05:34Give us one more.
05:36What kind of rice is that then?
05:38It's a type of rice, if you do much cooking at home, that you'd use in a risotto.
05:41We use that because it's high in starch.
05:43So once it's cooked, it gets like a sticky texture.
05:46Right.
05:47And it helps bond the flake together.
05:49Right, so now we've cooked the sample.
05:50Yeah.
05:51We're going to give it to Paul.
05:52OK, no problem.
05:54OK.
05:55We've got some relevant testing on it.
05:56Right.
05:57To make sure it meets the right specification.
05:58Yeah.
06:00First off, Paul makes sure the rice is a mix of big and small grains,
06:05which will give texture to the finished flakes.
06:11Oh, hang on.
06:13Looks like someone's peckish.
06:15It's OK, though.
06:16Apparently, it's part of the test.
06:18Paul's checking the rice hasn't picked up any nutty tastes or smells.
06:22And the scores are in.
06:25How's it looking, Paul?
06:27Rice is all good, Paddy?
06:28Belting.
06:29So we can load it in now?
06:30Yeah, let's get it going.
06:31OK.
06:32Load it up!
06:33Load it up!
06:45Start the clock.
06:46Breakfast is underway.
06:48To make 350,000 boxes of cereal every day, this massive factory has four 100-tonne,
07:0030-metre-high silos.
07:03Just for the rice.
07:06And there's another three silos full of wheat.
07:09So 47% of our flake is made up by rice, and the other's whole wheat.
07:17Around 37% whole wheat.
07:19Well, I'm glad you said that, Craig, because through the magic of telly,
07:22I've sent Cherry down to the farm to find out exactly how it's harvested.
07:27The wheat for your cereal, Paddy, needs dry weather to harvest.
07:36And the somewhat changeable British climate is making that tricky.
07:42It's been such a soggy summer.
07:44It's been raining what feels like non-stop.
07:47But I've just had the call from farmer Stephen to say he thinks it's dry enough to harvest the wheat.
07:52Fingers crossed.
07:54I'm in Northamptonshire meeting Stephen Evans, who runs a 1,600-acre farm.
08:01Lovely to see you.
08:02Really nice to meet you.
08:04And grows 2,000 tonnes of wheat a year, half of which goes to the cereal factory.
08:11And today there's just one field left to harvest.
08:15Has the rain been a total pain?
08:17It's been a horrible year. It's made life very difficult.
08:20Why can't you harvest when it's just rained?
08:22The grain, if it's too wet, will go mouldy in the shed.
08:25I mean, how much money do you lose if that happens?
08:27It'll be tens of thousands across the farm.
08:29So we've invested everything and we really need this.
08:33Oh, my gosh.
08:35More rain is on the horizon.
08:38But the last few sunny days means this 25-acre field should be dry enough to harvest.
08:44We just need to do a moisture test and see if it's good to go.
08:48The stakes are really high.
08:50There's a lot riding on this.
08:51So this is our electronic moisture tester.
08:53So we need the moisture of this grain to be 15 or less.
08:5615% moisture or less or we're in trouble today.
08:59That's right.
09:0014.9.
09:05So is it go time?
09:06I think we better go.
09:08With the weather forecast threatening, it's a race against time.
09:11But the 15-tonne combine harvester is ready for action.
09:20It's absolutely amazing.
09:22It's just the most enormous, nailedest monster of a machine I've ever seen.
09:29Yeah, 10 metres wide.
09:31It's amazing what they're processed.
09:34I've seen a few farm machines in my time, but this one is on another level.
09:40Yeah.
09:41Woo-hoo!
09:44To make sure the valuable crop is gathered before the rain comes,
09:49Stephen calls in another harvester from a neighbouring farm.
09:53Today, it's all hands on deck.
09:56Here we are.
09:57Take a seat.
09:58Look at this.
09:59So we'll put the front header in gear.
10:03Look at those teeth.
10:04So that's the knife.
10:05That will cut the crop.
10:07That is one hell of a knife.
10:10Right, here it goes.
10:11Whoa, look at that.
10:13So we're off.
10:16So this rotating wheel is then pulling it all into the body of the machine,
10:20which is like a mini factory back there.
10:22Oh, it is.
10:24A combine harvester gets its name because it combines the three stages of harvesting.
10:30First, reaping, where the front header cuts the stalks of wheat.
10:35Next, threshing, to shake the ears from the stalks.
10:40And finally, winnowing, to separate the wheat from the chaff, the unwanted husks.
10:47The straw and the chaff fly out the back to fertilise the field for next year.
10:54The grain which will be used for cereals is filling up the tank behind us.
10:58How much are you collecting in one go?
11:01This machine currently is doing about 30 tonnes per hour.
11:06So that's a lot of bowls of cereals.
11:09In fact, it's enough to produce nearly two million bowls of our cereal.
11:14And we've got two of these monster machines working flat out to get the harvest finished.
11:21I hope Paddy appreciates how much work has gone into this.
11:24So do I.
11:25It's about time we emptied.
11:30Once the grain tank is full.
11:33Oh, here he comes.
11:34There he is.
11:35There we go. Hello.
11:36So, let's hope Frank is good at catching.
11:38It needs to be emptied as quickly as possible.
11:41And we don't need to pause the harvest to unload.
11:44He's absolutely nailed it.
11:46Because the trailer comes to us.
11:48It's like someone's just turned the tap on at max.
11:54That can go into the store.
11:55Off he goes.
11:58With two combine harvesters, it takes just an hour and a half to gather 90 tonnes of wheat from this final field.
12:05We've dodged the rain and the freshly harvested crop is taken to a dry barn.
12:19Is this everything done if you finish the harvest?
12:21We're finished now.
12:22We're over the line.
12:23It's such a relief.
12:24The weather won't affect us anymore.
12:26The wheat will be sent to the cereal factory to be transformed into 72 million servings of breakfast flakes.
12:36Paddy, I've got 800 tonnes of wheat for you.
12:39I hope it's enough.
12:41I think that should keep us ticking over, Cherry.
12:54Mind you, I'm still getting to grips with the size of this place.
12:58It's a whopping 52,000 square metres.
13:03And using the traditional TV measuring system, that's bigger than seven football pitches.
13:09Feeling fitter already.
13:12I'm definitely getting my steps in.
13:15We've had to put a wide-angle lens on the drone just to get this shot.
13:20From the huge silos intake, I'm following our rice and wheat to the mini silos.
13:28Where I've been told to look out for factory food designer, Lizzie Waitin.
13:34You all right, Lizzie?
13:35Hi, Paddy, how are you doing?
13:36Keeping busy?
13:37Oh, just about.
13:38I just did a rhyming thing.
13:39It's all right.
13:40No, listen, for the good licence fee paying people at home, what are we doing here?
13:45So, this room is where all of the grains come to after they've just been offloaded.
13:50So, above us are all the silos and there's about 80 tonnes of the four key ingredients that go into the multigrain cereal.
13:55So, we've got the rice that you've just seen.
13:56Yeah.
13:57We've got the wheat and we've got two types of barley.
14:00So, this is the wheat, which is really important for the structure of the flake.
14:04It holds it all together, but it's a whole grain, so it adds fibre, it's really good for your heart and digestive system.
14:09Oh, OK.
14:10Now, that's definitely changed from when I saw it with cherry.
14:13What's been done to it?
14:15This is cracked wheat.
14:16It's been taken to a mill and then it's been cleaned to get rid of any impurities and then those kernels are moistened a little bit and then they're just cracked a little bit.
14:26Random question.
14:27How do you clean wheat?
14:28Just with water and a bit of scrubbing colour.
14:30So, it's just like how you clean yourself at home, you get in the bath, you have a little bit of a scrub.
14:35Yeah, exactly.
14:36Just a little shower gel.
14:38All right.
14:40The other two main ingredients are kibbled barley, which are crushed whole grains.
14:46It's almost like tiny little stones, it's quite hard.
14:50And finer textured malted barley flour.
14:53From here, our cereals rush along pipes into one of four enormous cookers.
15:04Whoa.
15:05This is massive.
15:12Holy granola, that is big.
15:18Lizzie, quick question.
15:2014 cookers, massive room.
15:22Where is everyone?
15:23So, these are quite self-sufficient.
15:25Right.
15:26We've got them all pre-set to make sure that as one cook finishes, another one's still going and there's a continuous feed of cereal going to the next part of the process.
15:37In one cook, how much cereal is that?
15:40Found about 740 kilos.
15:42That's about 1,500 boxes of cereal.
15:46Or 24,500 bowls of cereal.
15:49Wowzers!
15:51So, the cook is in three stages.
15:53For the first stage, we have the cookers rotating, so all the ingredients are mixed together and we add in lots of hot steam.
15:59A jet of steam is blasted into the cooker at 125 degrees Celsius, adding moisture to the mix and starting the cooking process.
16:13Give me steam, I'm how you feel, come make it real, real as any place you'll be.
16:22Get along with the dreamers.
16:27Very similar to if you were making a risotto at home, you have your stock and your rice.
16:31Right.
16:32You mix and heat it and it gets thicker and it starts to swell.
16:35That's the same process that we've got going on in here.
16:37I need steam, feel the steam around me.
16:46So, when I'm looking at a cereal, it's very, very dry and flaky.
16:51Surely, we don't want to be adding more moisture to it.
16:54Is it not going to keep making it soggy?
16:56Well, actually, Paddy, we need to add even more moisture to it.
16:59So, at this stage, we actually add in about a third extra moisture.
17:03Oh, no, no, no.
17:05I'm not a medical person, but someone needs to drink more water.
17:10This is, in fact, the flavour solution we added after the precinct.
17:15So, in here, we have malt, we have sugar, salt and water.
17:19Can I smell that?
17:20Yes, you can smell it.
17:22Have a little...
17:24It's almost like a sweet and sour smell, that.
17:28The flavouring is added to the cooker,
17:30which slowly revolves for an hour,
17:34mixing all the ingredients thoroughly as they cook.
17:40If we go around now, we can go and take a little look at it.
17:43Thought you'd never ask.
17:44Come on, then.
17:49Three hours after the rice was delivered,
17:52our mix is cooked,
17:53and we've taken the first step towards breakfast cereal heaven.
17:58Beautiful.
18:00All of this has just been dumped out of that cooker
18:03and it's coming along these Archimedes screws.
18:05Dumped?
18:06Yes. It's not the most...
18:07Placed. Placed.
18:08It's not the most romantic word, but we go with it.
18:11It's been glovingly placed into this Archimedes screw.
18:16Still looks nothing like cereal that I recognise.
18:19No, so the most important part about this is it's now cooked.
18:23So that means it's ready to get all that moisture back out.
18:26So we've put it in, and now we need to take it back out again.
18:28It does smell lovely, though.
18:29Yes, yes, so that's all those cooked flavours coming through.
18:32So to save your fingers, I've brought you some
18:34so you can have a little closer look at it.
18:36All right, that's that.
18:37That is that, yeah.
18:38Oh, that is hot.
18:39Yes, yes.
18:40It's not very wet,
18:41but there's definitely still quite a bit of moisture in there.
18:44It's all moist now,
18:45but the next stage of the process
18:46is to try and get all that moisture out
18:48to get to that lovely crunchy cereal.
18:51I love to try that, but I'm missing one key ingredient.
18:55Spoons!
18:58And that, viewers, is my clever link
19:01to everyone's favourite historian, Ruth Goodman.
19:05She's visiting somewhere that makes the best of them.
19:11Sheffield, the steel city.
19:16Fed by iron ore and coal mined from the Pennines,
19:19Sheffield's metalworks put the city on the map.
19:23And they were particularly famous for their cutlery.
19:29But it's one very specific piece of cutlery
19:32that I'm in Sheffield to find out about.
19:35Not just any old spoon,
19:38but the stainless steel spoon.
19:41I'm at the Kellam Island Museum,
19:45a historic industrial site,
19:48to meet curator of industry and metalwork, Emma Peregrine.
19:54So Sheffield has a really long history
19:57of cutlery making, doesn't it?
19:58It does indeed.
20:00It goes right back to the 13th century.
20:02OK.
20:03And then Chaucer talks about a Sheffield swipple,
20:05which is an early knife.
20:06OK.
20:08But where do spoons come into it?
20:10Spoons have been around for millennia.
20:13Spoons made in bone, wood, even glass and ceramics.
20:18In terms of a metal spoon,
20:20we're talking really the Tudor period
20:22and then into the Elizabethan age.
20:24And what sort of metal were they?
20:26A lot of them were pewter.
20:28It's quite heavier, isn't it?
20:29Mm.
20:31And of course, pewter tastes.
20:33Yeah.
20:34You can smell it, you can taste it.
20:36There'll be a lead content as well.
20:38Which is really poisonous.
20:40OK, I'll give you that back.
20:42So maybe silver is a better option.
20:44OK.
20:46This is going into the 17th, 18th century.
20:48So solid silver.
20:50Solid silver.
20:52It's not exactly going to be in your poor man's cupboard then, is it?
20:54No, so a lot more expensive.
20:56You always know if you're eating off a silver spoon,
20:57you can taste it on the food.
20:59Yeah.
21:01The bad taste you get when eating off pewter or silver
21:04is due to the metal reacting with acids in the food
21:08and with our saliva.
21:10But steel, an alloy of iron, carbon and other elements,
21:15had the potential to react in a different way.
21:19By the mid-19th century,
21:22Sheffield was producing 85% of British steel
21:24for everything from knives and forks to railway tracks.
21:31But in 1913, just before the First World War,
21:35a revolution in cutlery production came from a surprising source.
21:41This gentleman, Harry Brearley,
21:44was looking for different alloys to make a gun barrel that wouldn't rust.
21:49So he doesn't set out to make a better spoon.
21:53This is a man who wants to make a better gun.
21:55Yes.
21:57In search of a metal that wouldn't rust or corrode,
22:00Harry began to experiment with steel alloys containing chromium,
22:04which has a high melting point, ideal for use in gun barrels.
22:08To find out more, we're visiting the factory of Sheffield cutlery makers, David Mellor,
22:18to look at some of Harry's experiments.
22:23So we've got some early samples of some of the tests that Harry Brearley had been working on with his gun barrels.
22:29And then he discovers that actually this might be useful for something else.
22:38On the 13th of August, 1913, Harry discovered a form of steel that was not only rust proof,
22:47but had another revolutionary property.
22:49So he discovers this rustless steel, stainless steel,
22:58a metal with no taste.
23:00Oh, really?
23:02No. So if you imagine, this is the first time that a metal hasn't really had the aftertaste.
23:07So out of rifle barrels comes cutlery?
23:11Yeah, definitely.
23:13Originally known as rustless steel,
23:16in 1921, Harry teamed up with a local firm
23:19to produce cutlery which they marketed as stainless steel.
23:24So this is a mass market product.
23:26It's cheap in comparison to what went before.
23:29Yes. Yeah, very much so.
23:31And as it says on the box,
23:32it's neither rusts, tarnishes nor stains.
23:35Cutlery made from this steel is unaffected by food acids
23:39and is in consequence a universal boon.
23:43A universal boon.
23:45Guaranteed.
23:52And here at David Mellor,
23:54they've been making stainless steel spoons since the 1960s.
23:58Today, David's son, Corin, is the company's creative director.
24:05So what's so great about stainless steel for spoons then?
24:09It's indestructible.
24:11It's incredibly resilient.
24:13Lasts forever.
24:15And there is nothing really to substitute good old stainless steel.
24:19I mean, it simply is the best material to make a spoon out of.
24:23A hundred odd years on, it's just part of life.
24:27Absolutely part of life.
24:28It's there every morning for your cereal, isn't it?
24:30And you just use it.
24:39Spot on that, Ruth.
24:41Back at the factory, I'm making a cereal fit for the best of spoons.
24:47It's like the Beatles.
24:49What a beautiful day
24:51High, high, high
24:53I'm the king of all time
24:55Buggy noisy!
24:57And nothing is impossible
24:59In my awful mind
25:03What we've got so far is nothing like plates yet.
25:09So I'm in search of Head of Operations, Ian Selley.
25:13You all right, Ian?
25:15How are you, pal? You all right?
25:16Okay, thanks.
25:18Ian, I tell you, everything in this factory is supersized.
25:22Yeah, it's a really big plant.
25:24Oh, my word, is it?
25:26No, I've just left Lizzie.
25:28All that cereal's not quite cereal.
25:30Yeah.
25:31But it's still very moist.
25:32I believe you're the man to dry it out.
25:34I sure am, Paddy.
25:35So we've been through the cooking process.
25:37Everything that we're going to see in the next few stages
25:38is about how we're going to transform that
25:41into the crispy cereal that we know.
25:43Okay.
25:45It starts with the granulator.
25:47A fierce-looking bit of kit
25:49which forces the mixture through a mesh.
25:52This, essentially, is a box now
25:54with a steel conveyor inside.
25:56Right.
25:57And it will hold roughly three cooks at any one time
26:00which is about two tonnes of food.
26:02My word.
26:03And we're just trying to break it up.
26:04Trying to make it even more free-flowing
26:05in order that we can take moisture out.
26:08Got it.
26:12And off we go,
26:14following the mix to a massive 30-metre-long dryer.
26:18Keep going, Ian.
26:20Where the temperature reaches 100 degrees Celsius.
26:24As it travels along,
26:26the mix loses a third of its moisture,
26:29starting the transformation from soggy to crunchy.
26:32What have we got here, Ian?
26:34So, these are our pellet mills, Paddy.
26:36Right.
26:37Yeah.
26:38And what you can see there,
26:39is that's the cooked mix.
26:40We're coming down through that tube
26:42and we're going to put it between two rollers.
26:44We're going to make little, tiny dough balls with it.
26:50One of the metal rollers is covered in hundreds of dimples.
26:53It looks a bit like bubble wrap.
26:57When the cooked cereal passes between the rollers,
27:00the mix is pushed up into the dimples,
27:03moulding it into little balls of dough called pellets.
27:08I can see the little balls, they're dropping, yeah.
27:12Behave, Ian.
27:13I know.
27:18Each pellet will eventually become one flake of cereal.
27:25So they've still got a little bit of moisture in them, yeah?
27:27Still, they still need to hold quite a lot of moisture
27:29in order that we can get them to form together
27:31now to make them little balls.
27:33These little pellets don't look like cereal flakes yet,
27:40but they look over the moon to be on the way.
27:44Oh-ho!
27:45Look at these cheeky little scamps.
27:48Having a right little bounce about.
27:50Bounce.
27:54So at this point now, we've put the product through a mesh.
27:57So those that have made it into a pellet small enough,
28:00drop through that mesh.
28:02Bounce.
28:04Bounce.
28:06Bounce.
28:07Bounce.
28:09Bounce.
28:11Bounce.
28:13Bounce.
28:15Those that don't make it through there,
28:16so you can see there are some lumps that go over the top
28:18and over the end.
28:19Yeah.
28:20They return back into the process.
28:22How much is coming through here now, Ian?
28:24So each pellet mill paddy produces about 48,000 pellets a minute.
28:30Wow.
28:31We multiply that by the amount of pellet mills we've got on.
28:35That's 10.
28:36It'll equate to about 4,000 bowls of cereal a minute.
28:41Hey, sometimes when I'm doing this show,
28:43people tell me facts and figures, I can't get my head round it,
28:47and that's one of them.
28:48I mean, how's that even possible?
28:52It really is amazing.
28:54It really is amazing to see.
28:58Bounce.
29:00Want to try one paddy?
29:02Absolutely.
29:03At this point.
29:05Oh, still very moist.
29:07Still very moist at this point.
29:09You've got to put a lot in your mouth to get that cereal taste.
29:16They chew it, but it's not unpleasant.
29:20But it's definitely not what I know that taste to be.
29:24After four and a half hours, we're leaving the pellets behind,
29:33and we've got 100 metres to cover to get to the flake making.
29:39And here we are.
29:41That looks a little bit more familiar now.
29:45Go on, Ian.
29:46Reveal the flakes.
29:51It's like playing the tastiest tuppany nudger on the pier,
29:55as your grandparents.
29:58We've only gone and won the flakey jackpot.
30:02So, Paddy, this is one of our flakey mills.
30:04This is very similar to a pellet mill, two steel rolls,
30:07but without the dimples.
30:09And as you can see there, that becomes a flake.
30:17Would you like to take a sample?
30:18Yes, sir.
30:19OK.
30:20Pull the handle there and we'll take a sample.
30:24My God.
30:26That's floppy.
30:27There's still a lot of moisture at this phase.
30:29Yeah.
30:31I thought they were going to come out totally solid and crispy.
30:34So, at this point, we've taken out about 40% moisture.
30:37There's still moisture in there, because if we dried it out completely at this point,
30:41we wouldn't be able to get it through that flaking mill.
30:43It would probably disintegrate into a powder.
30:47I don't know if it's a psychological thing,
30:50but because it's a bit more like a plate, I'm getting a flavour a bit more now.
30:54Possibly, yeah.
30:56But seeing those floppy flakes makes me think of one of my pet-aids.
31:01Soggy bits of breakfast stuck on the dishes.
31:05It's the eternal debate.
31:07What's the best way to stack those dirty cereal bowls in your dishwasher
31:13and get them spotlessly clean?
31:15Well, luckily for us, Sherry Healy is about to give us the answer.
31:19And ever the professional, she's brought her own prop along.
31:27Looks heavy, that Sherry.
31:30In most households, it would seem, there is one person
31:33who stacks the dishwasher with the precision of a Scandinavian architect.
31:38And there is another who takes more of a cram-it-in approach.
31:44So, I'm in Bristol to dish the dirt on this dish-washing divide.
31:51Cutlery first.
31:53No, do the plate.
31:55No, cutlery first.
31:57You are cutlery first, your plates first.
32:00There's always an argument, isn't there?
32:02This is wrong, because there should be no pots up there.
32:05Who is the stacker and who is the shover?
32:09I'm the stacker.
32:10Does he sometimes just shove the dishes in?
32:12Occasionally, and then I have to take it out and redo it.
32:17What do you think about this stacking? How does it make you feel?
32:20I'm tidier to it.
32:21Looks like something I would do.
32:23That would drive me nuts.
32:25I would have to take it all out and re-stack.
32:28It seems there's only one conclusion.
32:31Everyone thinks they're right.
32:33Time to clear it up once and for all.
32:39Back in my very own kitchen,
32:41my family's dirty breakfast bowls are waiting for some expert treatment.
32:46Hi, Andrew. I'm Cherry. Nice to meet you.
32:48Hi, Cherry. Nice to meet you.
32:50From Andrew Loughlin, dishwasher guru and principal researcher
32:53at consumer organisation WITCH.
32:55Is there anything that causes more domestic arguments than stacking the dishwasher?
33:02I would say no. They cause a lot of arguments, but hopefully we can settle a few arguments today.
33:08But before Andrew gives me a master class in stacking, I need to rinse my very dirty plates.
33:14No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
33:17Oh, what? That's...
33:18Cherry, Cherry, Cherry.
33:19Oh, it's gross though!
33:20We don't.
33:22You don't rinse?
33:23We don't rinse plates.
33:25You can actually mess up how the machine works by doing it, because on most machines auto-program, it has what's called a turbidity sensor.
33:33A turbidity sensor?
33:34It senses, in that pre-wash cycle, how cloudy the water is. And what it's looking for is how dirty your dishes are.
33:42So, imagine if you cleaned all this stuff, put it all in, the machine's going to go, hold a minute, this is just clean dishes.
33:48I'll adjust the temperature and lower it accordingly.
33:50So, if you want your dishes really clean, make sure they're dirty.
33:55The dishwasher wants to clean. Let it.
33:57Instead of rinsing, scrape leftovers into your food waste bin and regularly clean the dishwasher filter.
34:10And when stacking, face everything towards the centre of the machine for the best performance.
34:17As a rule of thumb, typically if you eat out of it, it goes on the lower rack. If you drink out of it, it goes on the upper rack.
34:24Right. And make sure no items are touching, so the water can flow and wash effectively.
34:31Nonstick cookware, sharp knives and wood should never go in the dishwasher, as high temperatures and water pressure could damage them.
34:41Oh my God, are you re-stacking?
34:44No.
34:46It's like a natural thing. Is it because some of them weren't quite even?
34:49Well, you know, it is my job, you know, to be a slight pedant.
34:54Particular placement might be important, but with this next lot, Andrew's got his work cut out.
35:01These are two of the worst offenders.
35:04Cereal-based anything and scrambled eggs.
35:07Yeah, what you've got here is carbs, sugar and starch, and protein with the egg.
35:11They take a bit more time to break down.
35:14When left behind, the starches and proteins on the bowls form bonds with each other and start to harden.
35:22The longer the food sits, the more cement-like it becomes.
35:27By adding moisture, the dishwasher breaks these bonds.
35:31So what we want to do with this one is put it in the middle, where the intensity is highest.
35:35I'll be stunned if that comes off.
35:39We'll see.
35:41Time to put Andrew's tips to the test.
35:44Right, in the tablet goes.
35:49A pre-wash sprays jets of cold water between the carefully spaced plates and cutlery,
35:55knocking off excess foods before the main cycle begins.
35:59But perfect stacking's not the only thing required for my dishes to sparkle.
36:07What about tablets? Is that important?
36:10Absolutely, yeah.
36:12They are designed to break down all the dirt and the food waste and start the cleaning process.
36:17Most tablets contain enzymes which attack protein-based foods like my scrambled eggs,
36:23as well as the starchy residue of breakfast cereal.
36:26They also have something else in them, which is a surfactant.
36:32It basically stops water from forming droplets and it makes it spread more easily.
36:37You want a detergent to have maximum coverage, and the water is the vehicle to get that there.
36:44Another addition, Rinse Aid, disperses the water on the surface of the dishes,
36:49helping them to dry at the end of the cycle.
36:51And to run efficiently, special dishwasher salt softens the water,
36:57preventing limescale build-up and those horrid white marks on glasses.
37:03Which is so annoying.
37:05Every household has a cloudy glass.
37:08Yeah, that would be because you've not kept up with your salt.
37:10And with the cycle over, it's time to see if my impeccably stacked dishwasher has done its job.
37:16No!
37:26No!
37:28It dealt with the cereal.
37:30It dealt with the egg.
37:31Even the egg!
37:33Even the egg!
37:35So the cutlery is sparkling.
37:37Yeah.
37:38So does that mean that stacking properly works?
37:40Yep.
37:41Don't pre-wash.
37:42Stack properly the first time and you'll get good results every time.
37:46I'm sorry I didn't wear sunglasses because that is some good-looking cutlery.
37:49So we've learnt how to get the best out of our dishwasher.
37:56Now all that remains is the battle of whose turn it is to empty it.
38:00I'm going to take a big bottle of milk.
38:22Just like everything in this factory, we've now got supersized balls of cereal.
38:28But these flakes are still missing that all-important crunch.
38:33So I'm on the hunt for Ian again.
38:36Is it that way?
38:38I'm not sure where I'm going from here now.
38:41I want to find out how flakes go from floppy to fabulous.
38:47There he is.
38:49Good to see you again, Ian.
38:51How are you, pal?
38:52I'll tell you what, it's toasty here.
38:55Oh, it's really warm here.
38:56The heat coming off that.
38:58Flipping heck.
39:01We've arrived at the toasting machine.
39:03That explains a lot.
39:05So this is the part where we generate the really crispy, crunchy flakes.
39:09Okay.
39:10So what you can see at the point coming off the in-feed, we've still got the floppy flakes.
39:14Yeah, I can see someone go over the side there.
39:16Yep.
39:17So there's still a significant amount of moisture in there.
39:19Yeah.
39:20And what they're going to do now, they go in to have a toaster.
39:22Right.
39:23It's very similar to a toasting machine that you get in a hotel.
39:26So if you think about one where you load the bread and the conveyor...
39:29I've got to say, you might be wasting your money there to get a new machine.
39:33Because I have never used a hotel toaster.
39:36That toaster bread just comes out warm.
39:39This is significantly different.
39:40Right.
39:41Okay.
39:42What temperature's in there, Ian?
39:43So this is way in excess of 200 degrees.
39:46Oh my word.
39:47That's proper.
39:49So we're now going to put these floppy flakes inside the oven.
39:53Inside there is a conveyor, but it's a vibrating conveyor.
39:56Yeah.
39:57And it's bouncing the flake up and down, and we're going to really reduce that moisture.
40:03The bouncing helps the evaporation process and stops them sticking together.
40:10Look at that.
40:17I've got to say, they're definitely a nicer colour now.
40:21What you're seeing now is 6.3 tonnes an hour here.
40:24Wow.
40:25So that's the equivalent of about 12,500 boxes an hour.
40:29It's bonkers, isn't it?
40:32You know, it's amazing to me, the amount of stuff that's going out of factories every single day.
40:38The product, the ingredients, the work, it's mind-blowing.
40:43Yeah.
40:44I'm getting them lovely aromas, Ian.
40:47So what's happening within there is something called the Maillard reaction.
40:50That's where you get a browning effect and it also really fetches out the aromas and the flavours.
40:57It was French chemist Louis Maillard who discovered that heating amino acids and sugars gives cooked food that taste we love.
41:07We're talking barbecued meat, roasted coffee and, of course, the toasty flavour of cereal.
41:14So when I'm on the beach in Tenerife on my sun lounger, I'm getting the Maillard effect.
41:21Probably, yeah.
41:22Oh!
41:24Also, what's happened through the toaster is we've enhanced the surface texture of it.
41:30You'll see where the rice grain has expanded.
41:33Yeah, it's popped, so the textures look much different.
41:36And that's the wheat, the kibble barley, the rice all coming together now.
41:40Now it'll be really crunchy.
41:42What we left moisture-wise, at this stage now, we've taken out 90% of the moisture.
41:47Can I try one? You can. Or two?
41:54Extremely hot.
41:55My God, they're roasting!
41:58I mean, you would be hot, wouldn't you, if you'd come out of an oven, to be fair.
42:02Wow!
42:08Ah!
42:10Lovely bit of crunch there now, Ian.
42:12Lovely.
42:13I'm just not quite getting the full flavour, Ian.
42:18Just there's something missing, though.
42:20Well, that's because, Paddy, we're going to add a little bit more flavour in in the next phase.
42:24OK.
42:25Which is our coating plant.
42:26Lead on, Ian.
42:29Tell you what.
42:30Boorish, then.
42:32Very nice.
42:33The breakfast flakes travel on through the vast factory, up this spiral elevator, which uses vibration alone to jiggle them upwards.
42:58In the morning.
43:01As they head towards the enormous coating drum.
43:03Out in the dark and into the lights.
43:08When the morning comes, I will be alright.
43:13Oh, my word, they are absolutely flying in.
43:16They're coming out of that tube so quick, they don't even look like plates till they hit the drum.
43:21It's staged now, believe it or not, we're actually putting a little bit of moisture back in.
43:24Right.
43:25Only a very, very low level.
43:26And so we're putting a coating syrup on here.
43:29So that contains sugar, salt, water, and we put some vitamins in at this point.
43:34Out in the dark and into the lights.
43:39When the morning comes, I will be alright.
43:45Inside the drum, the sugary liquid is sprayed onto the flakes from above.
43:51And the drum keeps moving them, so the syrup doesn't make them all clump together.
43:55Then after a trip through yet another dryer, my flakes emerge looking good enough to eat.
44:03Again.
44:06There they are.
44:07Now straight away there, Ian, I can see that little bit of sheen on them.
44:11So that's the coating or the flavour that we've added.
44:13Yeah.
44:14But now we've been through the dryer.
44:16Now that's the final product in its final finished state.
44:19You know what I'm going to ask, don't you?
44:20I do, Paddy.
44:21Yeah, you scoop in there, Ian.
44:22Let's have a look.
44:24Swallow.
44:25Right.
44:26Here we go.
44:27Big moment.
44:31Oh.
44:32Instantly, I get that sweetness.
44:35Which is amazing, because if I'd have had that without trying it before, I wouldn't have recognised that.
44:40Yeah.
44:41And at the end when you swallow it, it's still sort of there in your mouth.
44:44But yeah, it makes all the difference that, doesn't it?
44:46We're really fetching the flavours out now.
44:48Yeah.
44:49This is exactly what I recognise now.
44:51This is what I pour out the box, into the bowl, splash of milk, job's a good'em.
44:56So now they're ready to go after packing.
44:58Which is where I'm heading, Ian.
45:00Me and you will have to say goodbye.
45:02I have absolutely loved having our all-day breakfast together.
45:06Put the handshake away.
45:07Come on.
45:08Thanks for looking after me today, Ian.
45:09Thanks, Barry.
45:10Take care, pal.
45:11Take care.
45:13Of course, this lot would be nothing without one thing.
45:19Milk.
45:22Which brings us to Ruth, who's down on the farm.
45:28For centuries, our countryside has been blessed with miles of rolling pasture land and grazing cows.
45:34But much like today, the history of dairy farming has been a troubled one.
45:39As farmers battled the challenges of wavering demand and falling prices for their milk.
45:49Back in the 1930s, there was an organisation that set out to give farmers a better deal.
45:55And one of their aims was to get the British public to fall back in love with drinking a lot more milk.
46:05All right with you girls?
46:10Hello.
46:11Hi.
46:12Historian Amy Swainston knows a thing or two about the milk industry.
46:19They do look happy.
46:21Just being fed.
46:23I'm meeting her at this dairy farm in Dorset to find out why farmers needed help a hundred years ago.
46:33So what was going on for dairy farmers in the 1920s then?
46:37Well, in the late 1800s, many farmers had turned to dairy as a way to make money because it was seen as quite a stable product to sell.
46:47But by the 1920s, milk production far exceeded the demand for milk.
46:51So essentially there was a surplus.
46:53Exactly.
46:54Just not enough people buying what they were making.
46:58As supply outstripped demand, most dairy farmers were struggling to get a fair deal for their milk.
47:05Farms were a lot smaller back then.
47:07You'd have about 14 cows in a herd, whereas today it's about 200 to 300.
47:12They would sell their milk to the creameries, which were a lot bigger.
47:17Yeah.
47:18So all these little tiny farmers have got to deal with this middle man.
47:20Yes.
47:21Yeah.
47:22And it's the creameries that would dictate the prices to the farmers.
47:26Across the country, creameries processed the milk and made butter and cheese.
47:31To fight their control over the market, the farmers decided to band together.
47:37The decision was taken in 1933 to set up a cooperative between farmers to help them to sell their milk at a reasonable price to buyers.
47:46They called themselves the milk marketing board and they were a cooperative that was run by farmers for farmers.
47:55So that instead of the power being with these middle men, the power should actually sit with the producers, the farmers.
48:01Yeah.
48:02So that they could get a fair price.
48:03Farmers no longer had to accept the prices offered by the creameries.
48:09Instead, each month, the board set the price for the milk they supplied.
48:15Hello.
48:16And paid the money straight back to the farms.
48:19We're in the heart of the action now.
48:23It ensured 70,000 farmers across the UK could maintain a steady income.
48:32And as well as negotiating a fair deal for farmers, the board was also responsible for popularising dairy products.
48:43Over the following decades, their marketing team got busy.
48:46Making milk not just a favourite of children, but a drink that appealed to adults too.
48:53So here we've got a milk bar.
48:56The milk marketing board opened up quite a few milk bars throughout the country.
49:02And you can see the photos of trying to persuade young women.
49:07This is a trendy thing to do.
49:09It's particularly young women, isn't it? Beautifully dressed.
49:13And they didn't stop there.
49:16In 1958, they sponsored the tour of Britain's Cycle Race, renaming it the Milk Race.
49:23Oh, and we've got footballers here as well.
49:27Footballers, yeah.
49:29Really associated with physical fitness, with youth, vitality.
49:33And there were advertising campaigns that came along with this.
49:37So they were spending about 1.7 million on marketing per year by the mid-60s, which is about 30 million today.
49:45The investment paid off.
49:48Throughout the 60s and 70s, the British public fell in love with milk.
49:53And by the early 1980s, as football's League Cup was rebranded the Milk Cup, annual sales of the white stuff peaked at nearly 13 billion litres, compared to 4 billion in the 1930s.
50:11But it didn't last.
50:13So there is no Milk Marketing Board anymore. What happened?
50:21Well, in 1994, the MMB is actually shut down for good by the government.
50:26And that's because the Milk Marketing Board has a monopoly over the dairy industry.
50:31Ah, yeah.
50:32The government wanted to increase competition, but with the break-up of the Milk Marketing Board, the farmers lost their power to set the best price.
50:42So from the mid-90s, dairy farmers were on their own.
50:47Yeah, so where before they'd had that assurance on prices, now there wasn't any.
50:53With retailers driving prices down, and the costs of farming going up, many dairy farms couldn't survive.
51:02So today, we actually have around 10,000 dairy farms left, which is the lowest it's been in living memory.
51:10And now supermarkets are the main seller of milk.
51:12Yeah, so all the power is with them.
51:14Yeah.
51:16The Milk Marketing Board had its detractors, but for 60 years, it provided stability.
51:22In an unstable industry.
51:25It was a sort of organisation of a different era, wasn't it?
51:29Quite revolutionary at its time.
51:30Yeah.
51:31In many ways, it seems that we need something similar today.
51:42Oh, send a bottle of milk my way, Ruth.
51:45I've got a lot of flakes to get through here.
51:47In the morning, you know we won't remember a thing.
51:55But you can't have breakfast cereal without a box to put it in.
52:01Thus, exactly 440 grams of cereal is weighed and dropped into a bag.
52:07They're sealed and fall onto a vibrating conveyor that shakes the contents flat.
52:19I'm meeting project lead Donna Jenkins to find out more about how the bags get into the boxes.
52:25Hi, Paddy.
52:26How are you?
52:27Nice to meet you.
52:28Are you OK?
52:29Yeah, welcome to packing.
52:30So talk me through it.
52:31What's happening now?
52:33So we loaded the boxes onto the carter.
52:35Yeah.
52:36And it's got a conveyor mechanism and they work their way up the conveyor here.
52:39So each of those flat boxes are pulled down by the suction cups.
52:43As you can see, there's suction cups extracting them.
52:45Yeah.
52:46They work their way into the guides and the front box is being pushed open.
52:49Really clever.
52:50Yeah, it is clever.
52:54Amazing.
52:55Someone has sat down and invented a machine that takes a flat box and flips it up.
53:02Someone sat down and thought about that.
53:04That's bonkers.
53:06We'll work our way down.
53:07So what's happening now?
53:10Hold on.
53:11Don't worry.
53:12I know how to handle these situations.
53:13Yeah.
53:14You're going to be impressed by this.
53:15Shut it!
53:18That's how you do it.
53:19And then resume.
53:21So we apply glue to the top and the bottom of the box.
53:24Right.
53:25We have what we call is a pusher.
53:27It's getting the food.
53:28So it's pushing the food into the open box.
53:30I can see it.
53:31Yeah, I can see it.
53:33And it makes its way along the conveyor.
53:35It's now going to seal the boxes shut.
53:38So clever.
53:39It is.
53:52The machine turns out 150 boxes a minute.
53:56That's more than two a second.
53:58So what I've always wanted to know is what's the K for on Special K?
54:07Come on Paddy.
54:08Kellogg's.
54:09I'm special.
54:10Special.
54:11So special.
54:12Special.
54:13I gotta help some of you.
54:15Don't film me.
54:16I'm embarrassed.
54:17Give to me.
54:19Come on.
54:20Don't pretend you knew that as well.
54:21Moving on.
54:22Me and Donna are leaving packing.
54:23And heading to distribution.
54:24And, you've guessed it.
54:25It's mega-sized.
54:26This is like having a little stroll in the old breakfast cereal future.
54:42And I can see what looked like a load of dodgeums, but with no drivers.
54:52How many of these little rascals are here?
54:55Hey, get out.
54:56So we have 25 of these.
54:58They're called automated guided vehicles, Paddy.
55:01They just operate themselves.
55:02And what their job is, is to actually take all the finished boxes, either into storage
55:07on site, or they load it onto the auto bay and it'll get fed onto a truck.
55:11All by itself.
55:12Are you not worried about being taken out by one of these?
55:15They're everywhere.
55:16No, Paddy.
55:17They're actually really intelligent.
55:18If you look at the top, it's got a scanner.
55:20Yeah.
55:21So what that's doing is talking to a control system, which is in the heart of the warehouse
55:24here.
55:25Oh, right.
55:26Okay.
55:27They're actually that clever.
55:28They'll actually detect obstacles in front of them and it'll stop.
55:30Shall we give it a go?
55:31Let's give it a go.
55:32Yeah.
55:33What have we got here?
55:34Is this a specialist robotics operator machine?
55:37No.
55:38Bog standard blue carton.
55:39It's a blue box.
55:40All right.
55:41As good as any of them.
55:43Great.
55:44I'll give it a whirl.
55:45Here we go.
55:46So can you pop it on the floor there?
55:49Let's see.
55:51Oh!
55:52Don't right bump it.
55:57We like that.
55:58Yeah.
55:59We'll protect if it's safe.
56:00Right.
56:01And then it'll start off again.
56:02Brilliant.
56:03Amazing.
56:04Very, very clever little things.
56:08It doesn't have to be a blue box.
56:09No.
56:10It could be any object.
56:11It could be you, Paddy.
56:12Wow.
56:13Here we are.
56:16Oh!
56:17Oh!
56:18That...
56:19Close.
56:20That was that.
56:21Look at that.
56:22Look at how close that was.
56:23But to be fair, I jumped out in front of it.
56:24I took it by surprise.
56:25Yeah.
56:26You did, yeah.
56:27It was just going about its everyday microchip business then and then.
56:30And it still kept the same.
56:34Off you go.
56:35Very clever.
56:36Way too fast.
56:37Don't slow down, you're gonna crash.
56:38You should watch, watch your steam.
56:39Don't look up, gonna break your neck.
56:40So shut, shut your mouth.
56:41He's alright, listen, anyhow.
56:42Amazing.
56:43That's fantastic.
56:44Go on, you little rascals.
56:45I love that.
57:02Oh, I could hang about here all day, but apparently we haven't finished filming yet.
57:07Don't worry about stopping in front of the camera, lads.
57:11Just mow them straight over.
57:13Seven hours after the delivery of rice,
57:19my boxes of cereal are about to leave the factory.
57:24Well, there they are there, Donna.
57:26We've got around about 19,000 finished boxes on there, Paddy.
57:2919,000 boxes. 19,000.
57:31A lot of cereal.
57:34And every day, 40 trucks leave the factory,
57:37so we'd best get this one loaded up and on its way.
57:43There they go.
57:44Families across the nation will be enjoying them very soon.
57:49All this talk of breakfast and cereals,
57:52you know what I'm in the mood for?
57:54Full English breakfast.
57:55Good girl. Come on, Donna.
58:01From the factory in Wrexham,
58:04cereal is sent to all corners of the country
58:07to fill the bowls of hungry souls the nation over.
58:11And 30 million boxes are exported from here,
58:16right across Europe.
58:19Bon appétit.
58:24So there you go,
58:25we've finally got boxes of crunchy flakes
58:28without a drop of moisture inside.
58:31Well, not until they get in your breakfast bowl.
58:34Right, get me some milk.
58:36Shut the bedroom window in the morning
58:40Go to the shop, make plans to be leaving
58:44In the morning
58:48Thought I was sleeping, it was just a dream
58:56An alley cat chewing on dead meat
59:00In the morning
59:03In the morning
59:03In the morning
59:22You've been there
59:23Captured up by internet
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