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00:04G'day, I'm Dr. Carl. Now over my long and varied career, I seem to have picked up quite a bit
00:09of
00:09knowledge. I certainly get asked a lot of questions, but don't leave that further. I do not have all
00:17the answers. There are plenty of things that I have yet to investigate. Like how everyday items
00:29are made. Ah, I missed. I'm going too far. And that's the idea of this series. What an absolutely
00:37amazing arm. I've been incredible. Ah, it did it. Oh look, there it is. Yes. A perfect oval.
00:46I want to find out how things work. Oh my God. This time. I love this machine. A sweet frozen
00:56treat shaped by flavour and spun by high tech. That is amazing technology. Each year, on average,
01:05an Australian eats around 18 litres of the stuff. Mmm. Oh, it's so full and round and chocolatey.
01:13I'm going to be following how two cool classics get made. That extrusion head is what formed
01:19the iconic shape. And they're surprisingly complex concoctions. So join me to find out
01:25how do they make ice cream?
01:33He's a rebel and he'll never ever be. Any good boom boom.
01:40My rebellious heart has got a lot to sing about.
01:44I'm at the Streets Factory in South West Sydney.
01:47Hello. Ahoy. G'day. I'm Carl.
01:49Ryan. Nice to meet you.
01:51And about to have ice cream for breakfast.
01:54Oh my heavens.
01:58Welcome to the factory.
02:00Man, it just goes on forever.
02:02And of course there's beautiful stay in the field.
02:04And there's robots. And there's conveyor belts.
02:10It's just moving so fast. How many ice cream or serves do you put out each day here?
02:16The site will make around three million servings per day.
02:19Three million?
02:20Three million.
02:23It's made possible by the blending of modern food science
02:27with the latest in high-tech machinery.
02:33Ah, I did see a little laser pointed out there.
02:36I'm guessing it's checking that each slab of ice cream has a stick in it?
02:41Yes, that's correct.
02:42We have a lot of advanced automation to handle the product.
02:45We're trying to make sure that no human hands cuts the product
02:48to ensure the highest quality standards that we have.
02:53It's a long way from churning out a bit of cream and sugar
02:57and popping it in the freezer.
03:00Now we humans have enjoyed frozen treats for thousands of years.
03:04Way back, the Emperor Nero enjoyed ice drizzled with honey
03:09and other sweet things, but it was in 1686 in Paris
03:14that the world's first proper ice cream cafe opened.
03:18Now, here's something weird about ice cream.
03:20It's solid, liquid and gas, all at the same time.
03:27Today, on the production line, they'll be making two very different ice creams.
03:33One, a chalk-coated vanilla Magnum.
03:37And the other, a two-tone caramel biscuit-covered Aussie creation,
03:43the Golden Gay Time.
03:46It all starts in the mixing room with a super-sized blender.
03:52This stainless steel mixer can take six tonnes.
03:55Six tonnes mix.
03:55But it's all...
03:56And we can pump out around 14,000 litres in one hour.
04:01While Cass has 20 years' experience in ice cream manufacturing
04:04and is something of a human mix master.
04:08Well, hang on.
04:09Now, what are they adding here?
04:10Skim with powder.
04:11I've never seen that being used, vacuum assist for lifting,
04:16but it makes so much sense.
04:17And I notice that the inside of the packet seems to have a plastic layer,
04:22so it will also provide air resistance,
04:24so that way you'd get good vacuum suck.
04:27Can you show me how to do that?
04:29Is that popular?
04:30I need to teach you how to do that.
04:51I'm going to put it down, but it's right down.
05:03I love this machine.
05:05I mean, 25 kilos.
05:07Yeah, thank you, Grace.
05:08You'd love this.
05:11To understand about mixing,
05:13you need to understand the same like you're cooking at home, correct?
05:16It's a big grinder, and a juicer grinder, basically.
05:19It's exactly the same concept.
05:21And like any cook,
05:23you start with a basic recipe to create flavour and texture.
05:27If I explain the science of ice cream,
05:29one is we call it ice content,
05:31which comes from water when you freeze it down.
05:34Second is the fat, which comes from cream,
05:37and butter, which we use in our product.
05:40Next, stabilisers and emulsifiers are added for structure,
05:45together with a bit of sugar.
05:47Sugar play a very, very important role in terms of the sweetness,
05:52and it also gives a certain body.
05:55And the most important element is aeration,
05:58to make it more smooth in terms of mouthfeel and texture.
06:01Without air, it's a block of ice.
06:04So when you add air with the combination of sugars and ingredients,
06:07it's easier to eat.
06:09The mouthfeel is more creamier,
06:10and that's what ice cream is all about.
06:12The secret is to mix them in the correct sequence
06:16to form the chemical structures that make ice cream.
06:19One misstep, and the batch is unusable.
06:24I always talk about ice cream
06:26is one of the most complex product
06:28you can ever tell in food manufacturing in your life.
06:32Because we combine all the industries into one place,
06:36and we create magic out of it.
06:38I hadn't realised that, but when you say that...
06:41It is really magical.
06:41..and I think about it, it makes perfect sense.
06:49For the rich, creamy centre of our chock-covered bar,
06:52there's still one key ingredient to be added.
06:56Vanilla flavouring.
06:57Vanilla, an odd word.
06:59Now, if you ask most people what plain ice cream tastes of,
07:02they'd say vanilla.
07:04And you find vanilla in everything from cake mixed to candles,
07:06but the overwhelming majority of that is artificial.
07:10It's manufactured in a laboratory.
07:12If you want the real dirt, the natural stuff,
07:14that comes only from the seeds of a rare tropical orchid,
07:19which is grown in only a very few places around the world.
07:23One of them is in far north Queensland.
07:34Vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world.
07:37After saffron.
07:39The vanilla flower opens only once for five hours.
07:45If you don't catch it and pollinate it on that day,
07:49you won't get a vanilla bean.
07:51It dies and falls off.
07:52Lena Anderson went out to buy a hat for her husband, Pear,
07:56and came back a vanilla farmer.
07:58When I went down to the shop,
08:00this lady obviously have worked
08:02in Mareeba Agricultural Department somewhere.
08:05She said, oh, you should grow vanilla.
08:08Nobody grows vanilla up here.
08:10You should try something different.
08:11So I went, OK, OK, OK.
08:13I went home and gave Pear his Christmas present and said,
08:16here you go, you should grow vanilla.
08:18The lady said so.
08:19And so then we started looking into it.
08:21Well, no choice then.
08:23Well, it's like vanilla.
08:26The Andersons now tend to over 1,000 vines.
08:33What I'm looking for today is the flowers to pollinate.
08:37And they can be hard to spot.
08:41Vanilla flowers open for just one day.
08:44So to guarantee a bean,
08:46commercial farms rely on hand pollination of the hermaphrodite plant.
08:53So here we've found a flower that's opening today.
08:56It has to be done today,
08:57otherwise we won't get a vanilla bean.
08:59So I'm going to bring out my trusted tool
09:04and open the flower up
09:06and access the rosellum
09:08that is separating the male and the female part from the stigma.
09:13So I'm going to lift a little flap
09:17to get the pollen to actually reach the stigma
09:21to fertilise the flower
09:23so that it'll turn into a bean.
09:27Nine months later,
09:28and these babies are ripe for the picking.
09:32We're looking at something like this.
09:34We've got that tiny little bit of yellow starting.
09:36So that's ready to go.
09:40This one's got the length to it.
09:42Could become a nice A-grade bean.
09:44It's nice and straight.
09:47But that's just the start of the hard yakka.
09:50To develop the complex flavour profile
09:53takes a week of fermenting and sweating.
09:57They get kept in here for two days
10:00at high humidity
10:01for them to turn brown
10:03and start to look a little bit like the vanilla we know.
10:07After sweating,
10:09the bean needs to dry out.
10:12Drying helps the enzymes
10:14give us a chemical called vanillin.
10:17This transforms the green, odourless and flavourless pods
10:21to rich brown beans
10:23with vanilla's signature aroma and floral taste.
10:26It's still nice to follow them,
10:28to see them grow,
10:29to see them dry up
10:30and actually in the end end up
10:31with that nice great A-bean
10:33that you're kind of proud of,
10:34that little baby of yours.
10:37After resting for another three months,
10:42it can be added to all sorts of food.
10:53Back at the factory,
10:54I feel compelled
10:55to taste the raw vanilla product.
10:58Oh, there's something appearing here.
11:00They call this the caviar.
11:02Oh, my God.
11:03I'm about to taste it.
11:05Here we go.
11:05Here we go.
11:12Wow.
11:13Man.
11:14There are hundreds of different flavours
11:16and the thing they call vanilla
11:17is somewhere in there.
11:20It's also a little bit gritty.
11:24I'm off to the mixing room again
11:25to get a better understanding
11:27of the size behind the core ingredient
11:30that makes all ice cream.
11:34Now, I notice now,
11:36I'm beginning on the top
11:37to see a sort of yellow colour.
11:38You can see what's happening right now.
11:40Water and fat,
11:42they don't mix together.
11:44They don't mix together.
11:45Why?
11:45Because water is a polar molecule
11:48and fat is organic molecule.
11:50So the fat repels.
11:52Fat is added to the recipe,
11:54not just to enhance and carry flavours,
11:57but it also stops the mixture
11:59from becoming icy too soon.
12:02The fat is trying to be dispersed.
12:05So what we do after this,
12:06we will send it to homogeniser.
12:08And homogeniser is a very,
12:10very important part
12:12of the mixed processing plant.
12:13We call them the beating heart
12:15of the factory.
12:20Rather than cooling down,
12:22here's where things heat up
12:23under pressure.
12:25Oh, my heaven,
12:26it's getting noisy.
12:27So we are usually preparing a mix
12:29at around 65 to 70 degrees centigrade.
12:31Warm.
12:33Homogenising further breaks down
12:35large fat globules
12:37into tiny uniform particles,
12:39creating a smoother, richer texture.
12:42So this is the homogeniser
12:45and factoriser.
12:46This plays a very important role
12:48for fat particle size distribution.
12:50This is a pump
12:51which basically forces
12:52the fat particle
12:54through a very small orifice
12:55and the amount of velocity
12:58it creates,
12:59which is almost equal to
13:0112 to 13 km per second.
13:04Wow.
13:04It is the same velocity
13:05required for the rocket
13:08to skip from the Earth's surface.
13:11So that's happening
13:12inside that homogeniser.
13:16Time to head upstairs
13:17where they take
13:19the cream mixtures
13:20to the next stage.
13:22And here's something
13:23I never thought
13:24I would see
13:25in an ice cream factory.
13:27So we call this
13:27the ageing tank farm.
13:29This is where the fats
13:30and oils
13:31then start to solidify
13:32and form crystals.
13:34Like wine and cheese,
13:36apparently ice cream
13:37needs to age.
13:40Normally the process
13:41is about a couple of hours
13:42but it can be
13:43up to 12 plus hours.
13:45This is enough time
13:46to give the mix
13:47a chance to age correctly
13:48right before it goes
13:49to the freezer.
13:50What if you don't do
13:51the ageing?
13:52What happens?
13:52If you don't do the ageing,
13:54the ice cream
13:54is less stable.
13:56So it's more likely
13:57to sort of fall apart.
13:58It won't hold its structure
13:59as well.
14:00So that's why
14:00the ageing process
14:01is so important.
14:02Each shiny
14:03stainless steel tank
14:04houses different mixtures.
14:06Toffee for the gay times
14:07and vanilla
14:08for the magnums.
14:10So Dr. Carl,
14:11would you like
14:11to try a sample?
14:13Well, yes.
14:14This is Michael.
14:16What am I smelling?
14:18What does that smell?
14:19I think vanilla.
14:21Very strong vanilla.
14:27Oh.
14:28When I had vanilla
14:31out of the pod,
14:32you know,
14:32the caviar out of the pod,
14:33it was really earthy
14:35and lots of bass notes.
14:37This is very light
14:38and frosty
14:39and bubbly
14:39and happy.
14:41From the tank farm
14:42upstairs,
14:43the aged vanilla
14:44thick shake-like mixture
14:46comes downstairs
14:47via some lovely
14:49stainless steel.
14:52And when I say
14:52this is the cool part,
14:54I mean really cool.
14:56Oh my God,
14:57that whole cylinder
14:58covered with ice.
14:59What's going on?
15:00Why is it so cold?
15:01Yeah, so basically
15:02what we're doing now
15:03is we're converting
15:03the mix into ice cream.
15:06Inside,
15:06the liquid is rapidly frozen,
15:09going from around
15:09plus four degrees Celsius
15:12down to around
15:13minus eight degrees.
15:15So as the mix
15:16comes through,
15:17it spends about
15:17ten to fifteen seconds
15:19in a continuous process
15:20going from the back
15:21to the front
15:21as it gets pushed out.
15:23Wow, and in that time,
15:24ten to fifteen seconds
15:25it can freeze.
15:26Yeah, so it needs
15:27to be quite fast
15:28because you need
15:29to control the formation
15:30of the ice crystals
15:31and the size
15:32to create the consistency
15:34that you want
15:34within the ice cream.
15:36The mix freezes
15:37on the outside
15:38and then we have
15:39a dasta
15:40which scrapes
15:40the outside
15:41with the ice crystals
15:42off.
15:43As part of that process,
15:44the air gets mixed in
15:45and that's how
15:46we actually form
15:47ice cream.
15:49you're adding air,
15:51you're cooling it,
15:53you're doing physics,
15:54chemistry
15:54and thermodynamics
15:56all at the same time.
15:57It's very cool.
15:59Oh man,
15:59you've got complexities
16:00on complexities.
16:04So as the ice cream
16:05moves through,
16:06it'll get pumped
16:06across,
16:07over above us
16:08and into the line.
16:10So it then comes down
16:10through and it goes
16:11through an extrusion head
16:12and that extrusion head
16:13is what forms
16:14the iconic shape
16:15so when you pick it up
16:16you'll always get
16:17the same shape.
16:19How long can we leave
16:20it like this
16:21when it's not fully frozen
16:22because it's only
16:23minus five or minus four
16:24or something?
16:24It goes straight
16:25into our freezing tunnel
16:26which is right behind me.
16:27Oh my god,
16:28is that a freezing tunnel?
16:29Yeah, that's right.
16:39Wow,
16:40I'm seeing frost
16:41and I'm seeing
16:42tens, hundreds,
16:43maybe thousands
16:44of little slabs
16:45of ice cream
16:46going on some sort
16:47of spirally thing
16:48and there's this wind
16:48coming at it.
16:49How cold is it in there?
16:51Yeah, so it's about
16:51minus 40 degrees in there
16:53and the wind is so strong
16:54it's like being in a blizzard.
16:56Wowee.
16:57So the magnum must suffer
16:58that we might enjoy it
16:59and live.
17:00That's correct, yeah.
17:01It gives the price
17:02to everything.
17:10Across the factory floor
17:11on the gate timeline
17:12process improvement specialist
17:14Scott
17:15Ahoy, good day, I'm Carl.
17:16Hi Carl, I'm Scott.
17:17Is supervising the pour
17:18of a different ice cream mix.
17:21I'm seeing those nozzles.
17:22What are they squirting out?
17:24So this is where we pour
17:25the ice cream into the mould
17:27to get our shape.
17:28We have a white toffee centre
17:30and a brown toffee outside.
17:32Firstly,
17:33you're going into a mould, right?
17:35It's not extruded.
17:35It's going into a mould
17:37and then freezing there.
17:38But if you've got two liquids,
17:40one inside the other,
17:42how do you stop them
17:43from blending and mixing?
17:46Now this really cool bit of science
17:48is a trade secret.
17:49But it does involve thermodynamics
17:52and some nifty engineering.
17:57But it's important
17:59that it doesn't get too cold
18:01for the next stage.
18:03If you have ever wondered
18:04how they get those little sticks in,
18:06well, blink
18:08and you'll miss it.
18:15Once frozen,
18:16those little slabs of sweetness
18:18are perfectly formed.
18:21But what stops them
18:23from becoming a puddle
18:24on the way home
18:25from the supermarket?
18:28Obviously,
18:28they've spent a long time
18:30in the freezer.
18:30But an important reason
18:32is the addition of stabilisers.
18:35A common one found
18:36in many foods
18:37is called alginate.
18:38But now alginate
18:40is being used
18:40to forge important breakthroughs
18:42in medicine.
18:50I couldn't spell alginate
18:52before we started this work.
18:54It really has been
18:55a discovery for us.
18:57Alginate is extracted
18:58from brown seaweed
18:59and we're probably
19:01consuming small amounts
19:03of it in our food
19:04every day.
19:07But it's not just
19:08the culinary uses
19:10that got nanotechnologist
19:11Gordon excited.
19:14I found out
19:15where alginates
19:16originated from
19:17through discussions
19:17with seaweed farmers
19:19who took the time
19:20to educate us
19:21all about these
19:22really special molecules.
19:24Alginate, of course,
19:25is a naturally occurring material.
19:27So it had that compatibility
19:29with biological systems
19:31but also through ideas
19:33that were springing up
19:34in the laboratory
19:35that alginates
19:36might have some
19:37of the properties
19:38we needed.
19:38So we use alginates
19:40now almost on a daily basis
19:42to create bioengineered
19:44solutions to big
19:45medical challenges.
19:50At the Intelligent Polymer
19:52Research Institute
19:54at the University of Wollongong,
19:56Gordon and his team
19:57work with human tissue
19:58at a cellular level.
20:01From type 1 diabetes
20:03to cartilage regeneration,
20:05they're trialing alginates
20:07with the hope
20:08of creating implants
20:09for healthy cell production
20:11and regrowth.
20:14So this is the Biopan.
20:16The Biopan is essentially
20:18a handheld 3D bioprinter
20:20which enables the surgeon
20:22to print directly
20:23into a defect
20:24in a knee, for example.
20:26Within the Biopan,
20:28we have two cartridges,
20:29one containing the cells,
20:31the other containing
20:32the structural material.
20:34This 3D printer pen
20:36uses what's called
20:37bio-ink.
20:39It contains a combination
20:40of a patient's own
20:41stem cells
20:42and alginate.
20:44We have the red channel.
20:46It contains the living cells
20:48and then the structural component,
20:50the alginate.
20:52Like it's used in ice cream,
20:54the stabiliser provides structure
20:55for the cells to live in
20:57and allows the surgeon
20:58to inject new cartilage-like material
21:01into the dodgy joint.
21:11So imagine that this represents
21:13a living cell.
21:14You can see that if we inject
21:16those by themselves,
21:17we have no control
21:18whatsoever over where they go.
21:20We have no control
21:21over the arrangement.
21:22We have no control
21:23over the environment
21:24that will make them
21:26turn into the types of tissue
21:27that we want to.
21:31This is alginate.
21:33We've just added calcium chloride.
21:35The calcium ions
21:36will cross-link with the alginate
21:37to form the gel.
21:39It localises the cells
21:40in a particular position
21:41and provides that environment
21:43to protect,
21:44but also shows
21:45the cells can thrive.
21:48This combination of alginate
21:50and our living cells
21:52provides a structure
21:53which is biologically active,
21:55mechanically robust
21:56and we can locate it
21:58in the biological environment
22:00where it's needed
22:01to regenerate tissue.
22:03There's a real opportunity
22:05to not just put alginate
22:07into foodstuffs,
22:08important as that is,
22:10but what an opportunity
22:11to put it into new
22:12biomedical,
22:14revolutionising technologies
22:15that are bringing healing
22:17and bringing solutions
22:19that we just don't have
22:20at the moment.
22:32Back at Ice Cream Central.
22:35Where are we going now, Ryan?
22:36Oh, well, Dr. Carl,
22:37we're here to see chocolate.
22:38Oh, my God, I love chocolate.
22:39What's that like?
22:40Hang on, come on, that's not...
22:42That's chocolate.
22:43That's chocolate.
22:45It's 1,050 kilograms of chocolate.
22:48Oh, my heavens.
22:50Where did you get it from?
22:51So we get it from Belgium.
22:53Why take it all the way
22:54from the other side of the equator
22:55and halfway around the world?
22:56There are local chocolates,
22:58but the industry in Australia
22:59is very small.
23:00So to get the scale
23:01and the quantity that we need,
23:02we have to look overseas.
23:04And the bloke charged
23:06with moving this huge monolith
23:08of chocolate into the melter
23:09is Ram.
23:12Hello.
23:13So you're the chocolate man?
23:14I am the chocolate person here.
23:16Yeah.
23:16How do you get that huge
23:171,000 kilogram,
23:19one tonne block,
23:20onto here?
23:21I've got this machine here,
23:23the forklift behind me.
23:24Oh.
23:38As I always say,
23:40too much stainless steel
23:41is barely enough
23:41and these beautiful
23:42stainless steel groupers
23:44are holding effortlessly
23:45one tonne of chocolate
23:47in the air.
23:48Oh, maintain a safe distance.
23:54I'm keeping my toes
23:55well out of the way
23:56as the jumbo block
23:57then goes for melting.
24:03These two blocks of chocolate
24:04will take between
24:05one hour and 15 minutes
24:07to one and a half hours
24:08for both of them
24:09to be melted.
24:10And then you feed in
24:11more chocolate again?
24:12As needs be,
24:13I keep on feeding it in.
24:16If you lean over
24:16and have a look in here,
24:18you can actually see it melting
24:19and dropping into the tank there.
24:21Oh.
24:22You can see little tiny drops.
24:23Yes.
24:23Oh, my God,
24:24that's so poetic.
24:25A chocolate rain
24:26falling down.
24:28Oh, that's so beautiful.
24:33And, of course,
24:34I cannot resist
24:35a little sweet.
24:44Mmm.
24:45Oh, it's so full
24:47and round and chocolatey
24:48and got a long mouthfeel.
24:51Oh, my heavens, yes.
24:55More than 10 tonnes of chocolate
24:57is melted here each day,
24:59after which
25:02it goes to the dipping station.
25:09Yes, that's a really cool
25:10part of the process.
25:12You need to make sure
25:13the ice cream
25:14has enough cold energy in it
25:16so once it goes into the chocolate,
25:19it actually will harden
25:20and freeze the chocolate.
25:21The ice cream
25:22doesn't have time to melt.
25:23It freezes the chocolate.
25:25Wow, so that way
25:25you maintain
25:26the structural integrity
25:27of the ice cream.
25:28How clever.
25:33It's time to put
25:34the finishing touches
25:35to our other
25:36frosty toffee dessert.
25:39It's here
25:40that biscuit meets bar.
25:43Now, this is our
25:44vanilla-flavoured coating crumb.
25:46Really?
25:47This is from a local supplier.
25:48It's manufactured
25:49and made as a biscuit.
25:50Yep.
25:51And then it goes
25:51through a crushing process.
25:53OK, so am I allowed
25:54to put this
25:55into the process?
25:57Go for it.
25:58OK, like this.
25:59Here we go.
25:59Right.
26:04Oh, my God.
26:05Look, they're going in.
26:06They're pouring.
26:07It's got quite little water.
26:09I've actually provided
26:10the crumbs
26:11to the outside
26:11of somebody's daytime
26:13and the time in the future.
26:14Oh, my heavens.
26:15I feel so empowered.
26:16God-like almost.
26:19Exactly how
26:20the biscuit crumbs
26:21stick to the outside
26:22of the chocolate,
26:23well, that's top secret.
26:24So I can't tell you.
26:26But I can give it
26:28a personal munch.
26:38Look at how
26:39beautifully separate
26:40the white
26:42from the yellow ground.
26:47All that is left
26:48is to package them up
26:49and get them out the door.
27:06Making an ice cream
27:08is so much more involved
27:10than I had first thought.
27:11It's actually
27:11a complex chemical
27:13construction
27:13involving food technology,
27:16material science,
27:18microbiology,
27:19and wait for it,
27:19even thermodynamics.
27:21I think it's fair to say
27:22that you do not
27:23whip up an ice cream.
27:25You build it.
27:32Next time...
27:33Oh, look at that!
27:34...they have the power
27:35to stir the soul.
27:37Man, you've got to work
27:38this stuff.
27:39And now I want to know
27:40how do they make...
27:42...books!
27:44...
27:59...
28:00...
28:00...
28:07Transcription by CastingWords
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