1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:03,400 Tomorrow morning in Britain, 2 00:00:03,400 --> 00:00:06,600 we will get through over 1.5 million bowls of cornflakes. 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:12,640 And it all starts with thousands of tonnes of corn, 4 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:14,520 shipped from around the world. 5 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:21,440 Within days, it will be on breakfast tables all over the country, 6 00:00:21,440 --> 00:00:25,400 but how do you manufacture breakfast cereal on this scale? 7 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:29,520 We've been given access 8 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:33,440 to the largest cereal factory in Europe, to find out. 9 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:37,800 I'm Gregg Wallace... 10 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:39,440 Give me Crunchy Nut! 11 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:42,640 ..and I'm going inside, to follow this epic production line. 12 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:44,200 That is fabulous. 13 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:45,680 I'll reveal the secrets, 14 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:49,080 to ensuring the breakfast cereals we've all grown up with... 15 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:51,120 Whoa, hot Rice Krispies! 16 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:54,040 ..taste exactly right every time 17 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:55,720 and the massive operation... 18 00:00:55,720 --> 00:00:57,760 The scale is unbelievable. 19 00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:01,920 ..that delivers cereal all over the UK every day. 20 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:05,640 If I hadn't have just seen that, I would not have believed that. 21 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:07,200 I'm Cherry Healey... 22 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:08,440 Oh, that's the dream. 23 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:11,840 ..and I'll be finding out how the UK produces the perfect wheat 24 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:14,000 for our best-selling cereal. 25 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:16,960 We have one of the best climates for growing wheat... 26 00:01:16,960 --> 00:01:18,360 Do we? ..in the world. 27 00:01:18,360 --> 00:01:19,440 Do we? 28 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:23,640 I'll find out why a special nutrient is added to our cereal. 29 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:26,640 One in five of us are actually deficient in vitamin D. 30 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:28,480 One in five of us? 31 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:30,320 And historian Ruth Goodman 32 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:32,960 looks at what we used to eat to start the day. 33 00:01:32,960 --> 00:01:35,080 Gammon... Black pudding. We've got a pig's head 34 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:36,280 It's hearty(!) 35 00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:37,320 It's hearty. 36 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:41,080 In the next 24 hours, 37 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:45,440 over a million boxes of cereal will come out of this one factory. 38 00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:48,480 And we're going to show you how they do it. 39 00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:50,520 Welcome to Inside The Factory. 40 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:12,800 This is Kellogg's Manchester factory. 41 00:02:12,800 --> 00:02:17,440 It is the single largest producer of breakfast cereal in Europe 42 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:19,840 and tonight, I'm going to watch closely, 43 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:23,400 as this handful of corn gets transformed 44 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:26,760 into one of Britain's biggest-selling breakfast cereals, 45 00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:30,360 Crunchy Nut cornflakes, in less than 24 hours. 46 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:38,160 It all begins nearly 9,000 miles away in Argentina, 47 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:41,200 where the corn is grown on 390 farms, 48 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:44,040 across an area the size of the Isle of Wight. 49 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:48,760 During harvesting, the kernels are stripped from the corncob, 50 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:52,200 then once a month, up to 30,000 tonnes of them 51 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:55,680 are put on to a ship bound for the UK. 52 00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:59,800 After three weeks at sea, it arrives here at the Port of Liverpool, 53 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:04,520 with enough corn to make over half a billion bowls of cornflakes. 54 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:13,640 At the harbour-side cornmill, first the kernels are cleaned, 55 00:03:13,640 --> 00:03:17,480 then the outer skin is removed, along with the germ, 56 00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:20,120 the bit that attaches the kernel to the cob. 57 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:28,920 That's now on its way to the factory in Manchester, 58 00:03:28,920 --> 00:03:31,040 where in a matter of days, 59 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:35,400 the contents of that truck will be the cornflakes on your table. 60 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:41,880 The truck full of corn kernels takes around an hour and 20 minutes 61 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:43,000 to reach Kellogg's. 62 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:51,960 Their Manchester factory, as big as 18 football fields, 63 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:53,120 is a local landmark. 64 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:59,280 And the cornflake production line keeps moving 24 hours a day, 65 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:00,520 seven days a week. 66 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:07,280 Making a million packets of cereal every single day. 67 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:11,960 Factory director Tony O'Brien is in charge. 68 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:16,440 So, this is corn coming in on that wagon. 69 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:20,800 Over a 24-hour period, we'll bring in about nine or ten deliveries 70 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:24,840 and that'll make about seven million bowls of cereal. 71 00:04:24,840 --> 00:04:26,640 It's a scale I can't possibly imagine 72 00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:28,880 and I've got a big breakfast bowl, let me tell you. 73 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:30,560 And if no corn came in... Yeah. 74 00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:33,960 ..how long would it take till Britain ran out of cornflakes? 75 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:37,560 Here we've got about 700 tonnes of corn. 76 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:40,760 I reckon we've got about two days worth of... 77 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:43,680 Is that all? ..of corn supply and then... Is that all we've got? 78 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:47,120 Then, my phone would be going very, very warm indeed. 79 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:48,440 If all goes to plan, 80 00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:52,120 this precious cargo will be turned into boxes of cereal 81 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:53,760 in under 24 hours. 82 00:04:55,760 --> 00:04:58,280 Getting it into the factory is the responsibility 83 00:04:58,280 --> 00:05:00,680 of logistics manager Paul Davies. 84 00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:02,640 And that's naturally going to lift that up. 85 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:05,320 And he's entrusting that job to me. 86 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:07,880 So, what you're going to do is you're going to pull that back. 87 00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:09,280 Like that? Yeah. 88 00:05:09,280 --> 00:05:13,560 Then, put that shoe into there, ready for delivery of the corn. 89 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:15,960 I've never done this. If I get this wrong, 90 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:18,720 I'm going to waste 20 tonnes of corn all over the floor. 91 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:20,200 You're not going to get it wrong. 92 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:22,200 I'm not going to let you get that wrong. Thanks. 93 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:23,720 OK. 94 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:24,920 Now what? 95 00:05:24,920 --> 00:05:27,320 Take this and turn it, 96 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:28,760 to open up the slide. 97 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:31,040 That's a terrible responsibility. 98 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:32,080 That's it. 99 00:05:34,280 --> 00:05:39,200 The 24-hour countdown from kernels to cornflakes begins. 100 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:42,160 That is a corn waterfall, a corn avalanche. 101 00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:47,440 Tomorrow's cornflakes. 102 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:49,600 Yep. That's incredible, mate. 103 00:05:49,600 --> 00:05:50,800 That is incredible. 104 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:57,120 It takes an hour to pour all those kernels into the silo store. 105 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:01,480 They're a good 30 metres away from the factory plant 106 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:04,600 but if the silo was any closer, it could be dangerous 107 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:08,880 because, although it's rare, grain dust can be highly explosive. 108 00:06:08,880 --> 00:06:13,440 How on Earth does it get into there to make the bowls of cereal? 109 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:15,840 It drops from there into an elevator, 110 00:06:15,840 --> 00:06:17,600 which takes it up to the top. 111 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:19,120 It then drops into the silo 112 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:21,600 and gets blown across there 113 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:23,880 into the plant. It gets blown over that bridge? 114 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:25,640 It does, yeah. No way! 115 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:27,840 I wouldn't lie to you, Gregg, I promise. 116 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:32,400 Blowing the kernels over 117 00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:35,720 is the quickest and most efficient way of transporting them. 118 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:37,440 It gets madder here by the minute, Paul. 119 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:38,720 You think so? Yeah! 120 00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:42,880 The magic begins in the cooking hall - 121 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:45,240 fundamentally, a massive kitchen 122 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:49,640 containing 26 supersized pressure cookers. 123 00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:54,120 In charge is head chef, or corn unit manager, Dan Fox. 124 00:06:55,760 --> 00:06:58,560 This is the first stage where it starts its process 125 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:00,000 in becoming a cornflake. 126 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,840 So, what we do here is, essentially, we cook the corn. 127 00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:09,280 The corn is cooked one tonne at a time. 128 00:07:09,280 --> 00:07:10,560 Wey! 129 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:12,240 When the hatch is in position... 130 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:14,560 It's like a little mini submarine. 131 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:15,800 ..the press of a button... 132 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:17,960 Ready? Yeah. 133 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:21,160 ..signals for the release of the corn kernels... 134 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:23,720 I can hear them. I can hear them coming. 135 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:29,480 ..all the way from the storage silo, through a 250-metre long pipe. 136 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:34,800 So, you've got a tonne of corn in here. 137 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:39,240 That means, by my reckoning, we need half a swimming pool full of milk 138 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:40,960 and about 30 kilos of sugar. 139 00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:45,760 An hour and five minutes after arriving off the lorry, 140 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:48,520 the corn is sealed inside and ready to steam. 141 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:53,240 The pressure will reach 20 psi, 142 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:56,120 almost twice as high as a household pressure-cooker. 143 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:01,880 We add to it barley, malt, iron, sugar, salt, 144 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:05,320 and those natural flavours help take on this characteristic colour. 145 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:08,520 We add water into that corn, it swells it out, 146 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:10,760 that makes it more valuable, which then enables it 147 00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:14,520 to be in the right sort of format to be made into a cornflakes. 148 00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:17,800 It's... It's... It's just unfathomable. 149 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:22,040 The pressure cookers continuously rotate 150 00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:24,320 to make sure the corn cooks evenly. 151 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:28,520 Can you burn it? 152 00:08:28,520 --> 00:08:29,760 You can't burn it as such 153 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:31,880 but what you could do is absolutely really ruin it 154 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:33,400 by overcooking it tremendously. 155 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:35,640 So, a bit like, say if you're cooking pasta, 156 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:39,000 you can overcook the pasta so it just becomes a slop. 157 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:43,760 And after one hour and 15 minutes at 100 degrees, it's ready. 158 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:45,000 Whoa. 159 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:47,960 That feels warm and tropical. 160 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:50,240 It's this sort of like dark, sandy sort of colour. 161 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:53,040 You see it's free-flowing and essentially it's doubled in size. 162 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:57,360 The tonne of steaming, moist, hot corn 163 00:08:57,360 --> 00:08:59,840 is whisked away to start drying out. 164 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:04,080 Are you a bit of a cereal anorak? 165 00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:07,120 HE LAUGHS Probably I am actually, yes. Secretly, yeah. 166 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:11,240 How many times have you turned round and started talking to people about their breakfast cereal? 167 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:14,440 To be honest with you, quite a lot. Any time I do, people's eyes do glaze over, 168 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:17,840 I'm not going to lie to you, and then my wife says, "Come on, wind it up, wind it up." 169 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:20,440 I'm probably a cornflake nerd. You're probably right, yeah. 170 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:24,040 Come here, mate. Go on. 171 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:33,000 I just realised something - 172 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:36,520 I'm cooking breakfast for 30,000 people. 173 00:09:36,520 --> 00:09:38,520 But not everybody has breakfast. 174 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:46,000 Almost half of us admit to missing breakfast at least once a week 175 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:49,000 and one in ten people don't eat breakfast at all. 176 00:09:50,080 --> 00:09:51,720 We've all heard the old saying - 177 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:54,560 breakfast is the most important meal of the day. 178 00:09:54,560 --> 00:09:55,720 But is it true? 179 00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:58,040 Does it really matter if we give it a miss? 180 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:04,440 I've come to Leeds University to meet two people 181 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:06,920 who've researched this very subject. 182 00:10:06,920 --> 00:10:10,280 Professors Professor Louise Dye and Katie Adolphus. 183 00:10:10,280 --> 00:10:11,720 I have to confess 184 00:10:11,720 --> 00:10:14,280 I quite often miss breakfast. 185 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:17,520 To me, extra time in bed is always going to win. 186 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:19,200 Is it really that bad? 187 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:20,240 It is that bad, 188 00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:23,960 so, basically, breakfast does have a short-term beneficial effect 189 00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:26,160 on your cognitive performance across the morning, 190 00:10:26,160 --> 00:10:27,880 so those that have eaten breakfast 191 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:32,000 do better on tests of reaction time, memory and attention 192 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:33,760 than those who have skipped breakfast. 193 00:10:33,760 --> 00:10:35,320 Eating breakfast in the morning 194 00:10:35,320 --> 00:10:38,760 actually prevents a decline in cognitive function. 195 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:42,440 It's not going to make me Superwoman but it's going to keep me constant. 196 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:48,320 With the help of the professors, I've set up an experiment 197 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:51,880 so that I can see the effects of ignoring breakfast for myself. 198 00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:56,280 It's 7am, the sun hasn't even come up, 199 00:10:56,280 --> 00:11:00,680 but we're here at this Leeds office and we're waiting for the workers 200 00:11:00,680 --> 00:11:03,880 to arrive because they are going to be our guinea pigs. 201 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:07,440 Our test subjects are creatives, based at a work space hub, 202 00:11:07,440 --> 00:11:09,640 and none of them have had breakfast yet. 203 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:12,520 Before we start the experiment, 204 00:11:12,520 --> 00:11:16,760 Professor Dye needs a baseline reading of their cognitive function. 205 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:19,440 So, the first test is a memory test, 206 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:21,600 the second test is a reaction time test 207 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:24,200 and the third test is a sustained attention test. 208 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:28,880 First, the volunteers are shown 16 pictures, 209 00:11:28,880 --> 00:11:32,120 and ten minutes later, asked to recall which ones they saw. 210 00:11:33,680 --> 00:11:35,560 Next, reactions are assessed 211 00:11:35,560 --> 00:11:39,080 by a black circle appearing on the left or the right of the screen. 212 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:41,840 They must respond correctly as soon as they see it. 213 00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:45,600 In the attention test, they must press a button 214 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:49,360 whenever they spot three odd or three even numbers in a row. 215 00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:53,120 That was really hard. 216 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:55,200 That was very hard. 217 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:56,240 And now we will... 218 00:11:56,240 --> 00:11:57,280 You're in two groups, 219 00:11:57,280 --> 00:12:00,120 so one group will get breakfast and the other, I'm afraid, won't. 220 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:01,320 So sorry to break this to you 221 00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:05,480 but, Team A, you don't get any breakfast, 222 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:07,480 you just get a glass of water, 223 00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:11,080 and, Team B, you get breakfast 224 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:13,960 and you can have as much or as little as you like. 225 00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:15,360 Go for it. 226 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:17,920 But just try not to, you know, show that lot. 227 00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:25,920 Now, all our volunteers need to work as normal. 228 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:30,760 An hour and a half after the experiment began 229 00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:33,800 and I'm checking in with the water-only workers. 230 00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:36,760 Are you a breakfast-eater? 231 00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:39,680 Yes, I would have had a massive bowl of porridge about an hour ago. 232 00:12:39,680 --> 00:12:41,400 And how are you feeling right now? 233 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:44,040 I'm pretty hungry. Just really distracting. 234 00:12:44,040 --> 00:12:46,000 Has it affected you so far? 235 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:48,920 Well, we've mainly been looking at pictures of food on the internet. 236 00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:51,000 So, yeah, we're quite distracted, I'd say. 237 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:52,320 I am a little worried about it. 238 00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:54,640 I'm thinking so much about the fact that I am hungry 239 00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:57,480 that I'm worried about how well I'll be able to manage the space. 240 00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:01,880 Two hours in and the professors are retesting 241 00:13:01,880 --> 00:13:05,320 both the control group and the fasting group. 242 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:08,000 By this time, they've already exerted quite a lot of effort, 243 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:09,640 they've been performing all morning. 244 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:12,040 They've gone back to their desks and carried on working, 245 00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:14,160 so they should be tiring now 246 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:16,800 and we'd expect their performance to be declining. 247 00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:19,360 So, if you're used to having breakfast every day, 248 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:21,840 missing it is likely to be detrimental. 249 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:23,560 So, when they haven't eaten breakfast, 250 00:13:23,560 --> 00:13:27,520 they feel very sluggish, they feel that they can't focus, not as alert 251 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:31,280 and they also feel very frustrated and angry and quite hard done by 252 00:13:31,280 --> 00:13:32,960 that they haven't eaten breakfast. 253 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:38,480 I want to see if our hungry group is finding the test any harder. 254 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:39,680 The numbers thing, 255 00:13:39,680 --> 00:13:42,920 they were dancing at me by about halfway through. 256 00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:44,240 The numbers bit was... 257 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:45,760 It was really hard to concentrate 258 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:49,320 and by the end I just, kind of, felt like I was in a blur of numbers. 259 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:50,800 I'm doing OK, bit of a foggy head. 260 00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:53,400 Just putting numbers together properly, I'm having 261 00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:56,760 to triple-check everything, cos my concentration is a bit shot. 262 00:13:56,760 --> 00:14:00,200 How much do you think your productivity has been affected? 263 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:01,400 I think massively so. 264 00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:04,880 Yeah, I've done maybe a third of what I normally do. 265 00:14:07,960 --> 00:14:13,400 Three and a half hours after we started and after the final test, 266 00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:15,400 how did our officer workers compare? 267 00:14:16,960 --> 00:14:20,680 The breakfast-eaters sailed through all the tasks. 268 00:14:20,680 --> 00:14:24,120 The workers without food did OK on the memory test, 269 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:27,200 but they were 4% slower on reaction times 270 00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:31,480 and a whole 6% behind on the attention test. 271 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:33,240 It looks like the experiment has worked. 272 00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:36,000 People who didn't have breakfast really did struggle 273 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,080 with their performance. Absolutely. 274 00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:41,360 From the studies in our lab, the task that measures attention, 275 00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:45,280 performance is normally 7% lower in the breakfast-skippers 276 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:47,320 compared to those who have eaten breakfast. 277 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:49,640 It's quite a big percentage. 278 00:14:50,640 --> 00:14:53,240 So, it doesn't matter if you're a toast, a porridge 279 00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:57,600 or a scrambled-egg person, think twice before skipping breakfast. 280 00:14:57,600 --> 00:14:58,640 I know that I will. 281 00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:14,640 Back at the cereal factory and our corn kernels are in the drying room, 282 00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:16,760 three hours after they arrived here. 283 00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:22,880 They've soaked up moisture during cooking, 284 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:26,280 so now they're moving slowly on a looped conveyor belt 285 00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:32,760 through this nearly 100-foot long, extremely noisy double-decker dryer. 286 00:15:32,760 --> 00:15:35,440 Is this the biggest bit of kit in the factory? 287 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:38,320 It's probably the single biggest stand-alone piece of equipment. 288 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:40,320 That's all dryer? Yeah, so, it starts there, 289 00:15:40,320 --> 00:15:41,880 all the way along, 290 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:42,920 down, 291 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:45,720 all the way back again. There's probably in the region of 292 00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:48,160 several thousand bowls just gone past your shoulder now. 293 00:15:48,160 --> 00:15:51,400 You won't ever get closer to this amount of cornflakes ever. 294 00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:54,320 Absolutely. I'm sure if the Guinness Book Of Records was here and 295 00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:57,800 we had a bowl big enough, it would be the biggest bowl of cornflakes. 296 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:02,640 It takes two and a half hours of hot-air fanning over the corn 297 00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:04,600 before it's ready. 298 00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:06,080 What are you looking for? 299 00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:08,640 That was the corn coming out of your cooker. 300 00:16:08,640 --> 00:16:11,440 You can see it's got that, sort of, golden colour 301 00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:12,480 and it's quite soft. 302 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:15,400 But not wet, just squishy. And as it goes through the drying process, 303 00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:17,800 what we're looking for at the end is this sort of texture, 304 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:20,680 so it should be dryer, darker. 305 00:16:20,680 --> 00:16:22,520 That should be slightly harder. 306 00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:25,400 Yeah, slight bounce on it. It's got a little bit of give. 307 00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:27,720 Yeah, and, actually, that's absolutely critical. 308 00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:30,360 If we dry it too fast or too hard, 309 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:32,640 we're in danger of crushing it into a powder. 310 00:16:36,560 --> 00:16:39,440 If one stage breaks down, what happens? 311 00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:41,440 Everything before it stops. 312 00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:44,160 So, is not just this section that stops, 313 00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:47,240 it's all the 26 tonnes of cookers beforehand that stops. 314 00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:48,720 That could cost millions. 315 00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:49,920 That's correct, yes. 316 00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:52,600 I can't believe they've given all that responsibility 317 00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:54,560 to somebody like you, Dan. 318 00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:57,080 Sometimes I can't believe it myself, Gregg, if I'm honest. 319 00:16:59,920 --> 00:17:02,960 The next stop is the milling room, where our corn kernels, 320 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:04,400 still moist in the middle, 321 00:17:04,400 --> 00:17:07,880 are about to be transformed into a much more familiar shape. 322 00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:10,800 They're rolled through that mill. 323 00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:12,440 What do you mean rolled? Squashed? 324 00:17:12,440 --> 00:17:14,720 Imagine a mangle, 325 00:17:14,720 --> 00:17:18,640 they shear it, to sort of flatten it and elongate it. 326 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:20,240 Mate, they squash it. Yeah. 327 00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:24,920 The kernels are fed between two giant steel rollers... 328 00:17:27,120 --> 00:17:29,080 ..which turn in opposite directions, 329 00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:31,360 one slightly faster than the other. 330 00:17:31,360 --> 00:17:35,160 That means the kernels don't get crushed, but stretched, 331 00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:36,760 all in a second or less. 332 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:42,040 Going through here, the equivalent of 200 bowls a minute. 333 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:45,000 They now look like cornflakes to me. 334 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:47,960 They might look like cornflakes, but they're not cornflakes yet. 335 00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:51,280 Give it a feel. Feel it. 336 00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:53,280 You're all right. Feel it. No, it's wet. 337 00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:55,080 No, it's... Scrunch it. 338 00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:57,320 You can make it into a ball. 339 00:17:57,320 --> 00:17:58,960 Yeah, that's not right. No. 340 00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:00,960 It's all stretchy and rubbery. Yeah. 341 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:03,000 What have you done to my cornflakes?! So... 342 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:06,000 Would you like that in your breakfast bowl in the morning? 343 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:07,040 No. 344 00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:13,480 I'm about to discover how Dan turns my squidgy wet flakes 345 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:17,000 into the classic crunch we're all familiar with. 346 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:19,120 But around 150 years ago, 347 00:18:19,120 --> 00:18:22,520 I wouldn't have had any kind of cornflakes in my breakfast bowl, 348 00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:25,720 because cereal hadn't been invented. 349 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:27,240 Now, Ruth Goodman is finding out 350 00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:29,360 what the Victorians were eating instead. 351 00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:36,960 Breakfast before cereal was a gut-busting business. 352 00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:39,560 Wow, this is quite spread here. 353 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:41,360 Isn't it just? 354 00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:43,640 I'm sitting down to a 19th-century feast 355 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:45,920 with historian Seren Evans-Charrington. 356 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:49,640 So, what exactly have we got here? 357 00:18:49,640 --> 00:18:52,240 We'll start off with a nice little bit of boiled lobster, 358 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:53,560 some langoustines. 359 00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:56,200 We've got faggots, meat pies, bacon, 360 00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:57,880 cold cuts of meat. 361 00:18:57,880 --> 00:18:59,920 Gammon. Gammon, black pudding, 362 00:18:59,920 --> 00:19:02,280 we've got a pig's head filled with jellied brawn. 363 00:19:02,280 --> 00:19:03,360 It's hearty(!) 364 00:19:03,360 --> 00:19:05,000 It's hearty. 365 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:06,640 So, your breakfast would change 366 00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:09,600 depending on what you'd had the night before, what was left over. 367 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:13,560 One thing I'm really noticing is the enormous amount of protein... 368 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:15,320 Mmm. ..that's on the table... Yes. 369 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:17,760 ..and the complete lack of fruit. 370 00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:20,800 Yes. But this is really high-class dining. 371 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:23,360 You had a really hearty breakfast that was going to set you up 372 00:19:23,360 --> 00:19:26,560 for the day and keep you going until you ate again. 373 00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,120 We're not thinking about our waistline. 374 00:19:29,120 --> 00:19:31,360 We're not thinking about the nutritional value of it 375 00:19:31,360 --> 00:19:34,480 and it's thought that this is good for you, at this point. 376 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:39,080 Even the average Victorian was gorging down 377 00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:42,440 a mind-boggling 4,500 calories a day, 378 00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:44,320 almost twice the amount we eat now. 379 00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:49,800 In a modern life, if you sat down to this every day, 380 00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,600 well, you'd give yourself a whole range of health problems. Yeah. 381 00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:55,800 They are getting lots of gout, you've got problems with obesity, 382 00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:58,160 all sorts of gastrointestinal problems. 383 00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:04,040 Put simply, this breakfast made people fat and flatulent. 384 00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:06,080 Things had to change. 385 00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:09,960 So, in 1863, an American doctor, James Caleb Jackson, 386 00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:12,400 came up with an alternative for his patients, 387 00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:16,960 a healthy vegetarian breakfast, that he called Granula. 388 00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:19,160 And we're going to try and recreate it. 389 00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:24,160 So, what we're looking for is stiff wallpaper paste consistency. 390 00:20:27,560 --> 00:20:30,960 'We're mixing wheat flour and water, to make a dough.' 391 00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:35,600 We want to bake it until it's the consistency of a hard brick. 392 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:38,160 'That's nine hours in a low temperature oven, 393 00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:43,280 'then cooled and put back in for another nine hours.' 394 00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:48,360 This has been twice baked. This is quite hard, isn't it? It's tough. 395 00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:53,160 Break it up into these little pieces. Something like that? 396 00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:56,520 Yeah. But it's hard going, flaking it. 397 00:20:56,520 --> 00:20:59,320 'The flakes now need to be ground.' 398 00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:03,160 Now, that's starting to look much more like a cereal. 399 00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:07,240 But before you want to eat it, you've got to soak it overnight. 400 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:09,880 'After about 30 hours of preparation, 401 00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:11,840 'a very plain breakfast is served.' 402 00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:14,720 Brace yourself. 403 00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:21,160 It's not horrible. It's not exciting. Worthy, I think... 404 00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:25,320 That is what it's meant to be. I can't say it's a food for pleasure. 405 00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:27,560 It tastes like a health food. 406 00:21:27,560 --> 00:21:32,240 There's no sugariness, there's no saltiness. It's just very simple. 407 00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:36,000 Pleasant or not, Jackson had invented the first 408 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:39,080 commercially-available breakfast cereal. 409 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:42,280 It wasn't profitable, but it led to other health specialists 410 00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:44,880 developing their own varieties. 411 00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:48,160 This is where the Kellogg's story starts. 412 00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:50,480 In 1894, Dr John Kellogg, 413 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:53,400 chief medical officer of a sanatorium, and his brother, 414 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:56,600 William Keith, were trying to make granola for patients, 415 00:21:56,600 --> 00:21:58,400 using corn, oatmeal and wheat. 416 00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:03,520 One-day, William Keith was experimenting with wheat grains 417 00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:07,320 and over-softened a batch by mistake. 418 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:11,720 Instead of destroying them, he tried rolling and baking the mushy grains. 419 00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:15,480 And by accident, created the wheat flake of today. 420 00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:18,800 And from there, it was but a short step to creating 421 00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:21,880 the very first...cornflakes. 422 00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:40,640 Back at Kellogg's factory, cornflakes might still be their 423 00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:44,200 most iconic product, but it's not their only one. 424 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:48,000 Here they also make chocolate, frosted and raisin wheats - 425 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:50,960 Frosties and Ricicles. 426 00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:53,040 And I want to see what else is cooking. 427 00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:56,400 Technician Paul Richardson is the man who puts the snap, 428 00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:00,520 crackle and pop into one of their childhood classics. 429 00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:04,160 I feel a bit silly, but I never realised that Rice Krispies 430 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:06,200 actually were made from rice. 431 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:10,480 Well, the clue's in the title, isn't it? What rice is it? Arborio. 432 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:14,120 I've got that, that's Italian risotto rice. I've got that at home. 433 00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:19,680 After cooking and flavouring, the rice is dried, trimmed 434 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:20,760 and put aside. 435 00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:24,120 And then, it has to be puffed up by hot air. 436 00:23:24,120 --> 00:23:27,040 On our oven here, we have 1,000 tubes. 437 00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:31,200 That puffs it up, so you've got your snap, your crackle and your pop. 438 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:35,440 So, from there to there, in about 20 feet of tubes, 439 00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:38,680 hot air and colour, I'm going to get rice to Rice Krispie? 440 00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:39,800 That's right. Oh-ho! 441 00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:44,320 As you can see, it's hot! Whoa! Hot Rice Krispies! 442 00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:47,120 If I hadn't had just seen that, I would not have believed that. 443 00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:48,600 HE LAUGHS 444 00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:53,720 After, Rice Krispies get extra special treatment. 445 00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:00,520 They're covered in a mixture of cocoa, water and sugar - 446 00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:04,160 on their way to becoming Coco Pops. 447 00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:05,960 That is a thing of beauty. 448 00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:09,560 Vicky Stanton is in charge of the only Coco Pop machine 449 00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:10,640 in the country. 450 00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:14,200 Do you know how many bowls you're producing? 2.5 million a day. 451 00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:17,200 From this one machine? So this is running constantly? Yeah. 452 00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:19,160 I feel like I should pay homage to it. 453 00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:20,680 SHE LAUGHS 454 00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:26,440 The hot chocolaty syrup turns the rice grains moist and sticky, 455 00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:28,840 so now, they need drying out - 456 00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:30,400 very slowly. 457 00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:32,360 So, I can feel the cool air. 458 00:24:32,360 --> 00:24:35,320 That's drying it and taking the heat away. 459 00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:40,200 Most of them are loose, but I can still see some clusters. Wey! 460 00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:42,800 What happens to them? They fall down on to what we call 461 00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:43,840 the cluster buster. 462 00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:49,280 So it falls off the edge and breaks up the lumps? Yes. Brilliant. 463 00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:50,720 Brilliant. 464 00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:55,280 You can leave them there, if you want. 465 00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:56,840 SHE LAUGHS 466 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:02,760 Of course, the cocoa and the two and a half teaspoons of sugar 467 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:07,120 in an average bowlful is what makes Coco Pops so moreish. 468 00:25:07,120 --> 00:25:10,160 But they're not the only extra ingredients. 469 00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:13,600 Every Kellogg's cereal is fortified with minerals and vitamins, 470 00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:17,200 most recently, in some varieties, vitamin D. 471 00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:20,560 Cherry is finding out why we need it added to our breakfast. 472 00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:28,440 Vitamin D is essential to absorb calcium for healthy teeth and bones. 473 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:33,240 But new research suggests that there are other important benefits. 474 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:37,240 I've come to St Bart's and London Centre for Immunobiology to meet 475 00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:40,960 Professor Adrian Martineau. 476 00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:43,440 For the last ten years we've been working on the effects 477 00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:45,280 of vitamin D on the immune system. 478 00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:47,960 In particular, on resistance to the common cold. 479 00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:49,440 So what did you discover? 480 00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:52,880 We've done clinical trials and the results have shown in people 481 00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:55,400 who have low vitamin D levels to start with, giving them 482 00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:57,920 extra vitamin D supplements can reduce the risk of getting 483 00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,920 a cold by around 50%. That's absolutely huge. 484 00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:05,800 So if you have low vitamin D levels, topping them up can potentially 485 00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:09,960 prevent you from getting the common cold by up to 50%. Exactly right. 486 00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:16,120 It's not just colds you risk if you are low in vitamin D. 487 00:26:16,120 --> 00:26:20,880 Serious conditions, from type I diabetes to some cancers, 488 00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:24,240 as well as children developing bone-softening rickets, 489 00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:28,400 have been linked to severe vitamin D deficiency. 490 00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:33,240 One way we can get this super nutrient is sunshine. 491 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:37,920 We can produce it by our skin converting ultraviolet light. 492 00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:41,000 So if we spend plenty of time outdoors, 493 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,680 then surely we'll get enough of it. 494 00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:45,800 Not in the short days of winter, 495 00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:49,080 according to nutritionist Angelique Panagos. 496 00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,760 So the sun actually has to be at a certain angle, 497 00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:54,400 so it has to be at about 50 degrees above the horizon. 498 00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:57,360 And in that way, the UVB rays can actually penetrate 499 00:26:57,360 --> 00:27:00,880 through the atmosphere and help us to synthesise vitamin D. 500 00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:04,960 But in the UK, the sun in winter is always very low. 501 00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:07,240 The sun, unfortunately, is letting us down. 502 00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:09,840 So, from about October through to April, 503 00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:11,920 we can't synthesise vitamin D. 504 00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:16,000 So, if you live in the UK and you go out into the sunshine 505 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:19,720 in winter, you're not really getting a vitamin D benefit. 506 00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:21,880 You're not getting a vitamin D benefit. 507 00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:24,760 Although we store the vitamin D we make in the summer, 508 00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:27,640 it can be depleted over the winter. 509 00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:31,400 Research has shown that one in five of us are actually deficient 510 00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:34,520 in vitamin D. One in five of us?! One in five. 511 00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:39,600 That's enough to make me want to get my own levels checked, 512 00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:42,800 so I'm using a self-testing kit. 513 00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:45,280 If ten million people are vitamin D deficient, 514 00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:49,000 then there's quite a good chance that I am, too. 515 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:52,440 But there's only one way to find out. 516 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,400 Two weeks later, my results are back. 517 00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:01,520 Now, it's time to find out if I'm one of the 20% of the population 518 00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:04,360 that is deficient in this sunshine vitamin. 519 00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:15,080 Adequate! That's not good! Adequate. Good excuse to go on more holidays. 520 00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:16,280 OK! 521 00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:18,720 So, my vitamin D levels at the moment are OK, 522 00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:22,480 but what happens if they dip? What can I eat to keep them topped up? 523 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:26,560 So, you can get some vitamin D from food sources. 524 00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:28,040 So, oily fish is a good one. 525 00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:32,000 You'd need to be eating a lot of one food to be getting that 526 00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:34,600 vitamin D kick that we're looking for. 527 00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:37,120 To get my ten microgram daily dose, 528 00:28:37,120 --> 00:28:41,840 I would need to eat either one fresh salmon fillet or six eggs 529 00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:44,240 or eight home-made beefburgers, 530 00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:50,520 52 bacon rashers or 333 fried mushrooms. 531 00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,720 Taking a vitamin D supplement would be easier 532 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:57,600 and having a boost at breakfast could also help. 533 00:28:57,600 --> 00:29:01,440 The sunshine vitamin is put into a range of cereals voluntarily 534 00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:05,320 by Kellogg's, and most other cereal manufacturers, 535 00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:09,760 providing around a tenth of the recommended daily allowance. 536 00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:21,640 At the mega cereal factory, 537 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:25,440 our corn kernels have reached the toasting area. 538 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:29,040 It's five hours and 36 minutes since they entered the factory 539 00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:32,960 and they're halfway to becoming a bowl of proper cornflakes. 540 00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:34,360 Wow! 541 00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:38,520 Now, those soggy, flattened flakes need crisping up. 542 00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:41,560 In here, we dry it, we toast it. 543 00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:45,760 That's a circular rotating toaster? In simple terms, yes. 544 00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:48,760 It's taking the moist flake and making it crispy. Yes. 545 00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:50,600 And as it rotates around there, 546 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:54,320 the rotation action separates those flakes out. 547 00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:57,680 So, my big, gooey flake becomes separate, light crispy ones? 548 00:29:57,680 --> 00:29:58,960 Absolutely, yeah. 549 00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:04,000 It's in there for about seven to ten seconds. Is that all? Yeah. 550 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:07,440 That is the fastest cereal I've ever seen. Yes. 551 00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:12,160 Incredibly, these cornflakes are coming through at 552 00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:17,440 a rate of ten bowls a second. Help yourself, tuck in. They're hot. 553 00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:20,240 They're hot. It's like a plate of hot chips. 554 00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:24,200 Mate, have you ever thought about selling hot cornflakes? 555 00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:26,560 It's a treat not many people get to experience. 556 00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:28,880 You won't get a fresher cornflake than that. 557 00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:33,680 The cornflakes are good to go. 558 00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:35,440 Great big river of cornflakes. 559 00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:37,600 That's right, they're cornflakes, but equally, 560 00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:40,800 we will turn them into Crunchy Nut cornflakes or Frosties. Really? 561 00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:43,920 Really, yeah. So right now, that could be any one of three? 562 00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:45,200 Any one of three, yeah. 563 00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:50,000 Five hours 36 minutes and 15 seconds in, 564 00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:52,640 and the plain cornflakes head off for packing, 565 00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:56,080 while Frosties is diverted away for extra flavouring, 566 00:30:56,080 --> 00:31:00,120 along with Crunchy Nut, which was invented right here at the factory. 567 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:01,720 I'd love to make Crunchy Nut. 568 00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:05,000 How do you stop them going up to cornflakes? I make a phone call. 569 00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:09,320 Can I make that phone call? One second. No way! 570 00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:11,160 Is that Steve? 571 00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:16,160 Steve, can we divert some to Crunchy Nut? Give me Crunchy Nut! 572 00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:19,320 Go, Crunchy Nut! Do it, Steve. 573 00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:20,720 Yay! 574 00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:26,040 Cornflakes go that way, Crunchy Nut down that way. 575 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,560 Am I going there next? You'll be going there very shortly, yeah. 576 00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:33,920 I'm becoming very fond of you. Well, the feeling's mutual. 577 00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:42,960 Cornflakes have been the same shape and size as they were 578 00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:45,920 when they were first invented over 100 years ago. 579 00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,920 But what if you prefer your breakfast cereal 580 00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:50,440 more biscuit shaped? 581 00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:53,720 Cherry's been to find out how Weetabix is made. 582 00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:05,480 This is the most popular cereal in the UK. 583 00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:10,200 We eat over ten million of these every morning. 584 00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:15,040 Producing that many biscuits takes a massive amount of wheat. 585 00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:19,040 It used to come from all over the UK, and sometimes abroad, 586 00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:23,000 but six years ago, this cereal factory in Northamptonshire made 587 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:29,080 a big decision to grow every single grain within a 50 mile radius. 588 00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:31,720 Closer contact with the wheat farms means 589 00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:36,400 a more consistent crop and less damage to the environment. 590 00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:40,000 I've come to visit one of their 160 farmers. 591 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:41,440 Wow! 592 00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:43,480 Oh, that's amazing. 593 00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:47,840 Robert Barnes supplies enough wheat for about 150 million 594 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:49,000 wheat biscuits. 595 00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:54,320 This is a monster mountain of wheat. 596 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:57,600 In this barn, we've got 2,500 tonnes 597 00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:00,160 of wheat destined for Weetabix. 598 00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:02,800 That's absolutely staggering. 599 00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:07,960 We have one of the best climates for growing wheat in the world. Do we? 600 00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:12,280 So you're telling me that England is a great climate to grow wheat? 601 00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:15,800 When the temperature gets too hot, the wheat plant will shut down 602 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:17,920 and the yield will be suppressed. 603 00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:20,560 In southern Europe, they won't get the yield we'll get. 604 00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:23,480 Because the temperatures are too high. Because they're too high. 605 00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:26,480 So delicate. It's a little princess, isn't it? 606 00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:31,640 The wheat is harvested in the height of summer and stored for up 607 00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:33,480 to ten months. 608 00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:37,120 It has to be kept cool to prevent pest infestation, 609 00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:39,800 so its temperature needs constant monitoring. 610 00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:42,720 We have remote sensors in the grain that have little radio 611 00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:47,240 transmitters on and it'll say, "I'm too warm here, I need the fans on." 612 00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:49,560 So it'll start my fans to cool, 613 00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:54,160 and that fan will draw the air down through the grain and up 614 00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:57,680 through the column to cool the grain down to five degrees. 615 00:33:57,680 --> 00:33:59,800 I had no idea it was so hi-tech. 616 00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:07,200 Every year, Robert fills 100 trucks with wheat to keep up with 617 00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:10,000 demand from the factory. 618 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:14,920 That's a 29 tonne truckload of wheat. 619 00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:22,520 That might sound like a lot, but up the road is the world's largest 620 00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:28,400 Weetabix factory, and they go through ten truckloads every single day. 621 00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:32,920 At the factory, it's cleaned and softened in water before 622 00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:37,800 being pressure cooked with salt, sugar, vitamins and malt. 623 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:40,880 That's amazing. Oh, wow. 624 00:34:40,880 --> 00:34:45,760 Showing me the just cooked wheat is factory manager Gordon Riddick. 625 00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:49,840 So you can feel it's quite sticky, it's quite moist, quite soft. 626 00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:55,720 Quite pliable. And smells fantastic. That is... Oh, that's the dream. 627 00:34:55,720 --> 00:34:57,680 Malty cooked wheat. 628 00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:02,600 The wheat is then pressed into flakes by one of 629 00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:06,400 the 48 rolling mills in this huge milling room. 630 00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:13,960 This is what we call the cathedral. It's such a large building. 631 00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:16,960 It's magnificent. Absolutely. 632 00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:19,720 That is so nearly Weetabix. 633 00:35:19,720 --> 00:35:24,400 That's an individual grain been squashed. Squashed. Squashed. 634 00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:29,840 They cram around 365 wheat grains into every biscuit. 635 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:34,200 If you want to take a whole handful, squeeze it tight in your hands. 636 00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:38,560 It's just the moisture content and the compression that form the biscuit. 637 00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:43,000 It's a Weetabix! It's a Weetabix. Pressure... And moisture. 638 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:46,320 And moisture. Yes, appliance of physics. That's all it is. 639 00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:48,440 It looks a little bit like a squashed tennis ball, 640 00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:49,960 but it's all right. 641 00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:54,200 All the grain flakes are carried along to the biscuit machine, 642 00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:56,960 where they tumble into moulds. 643 00:35:56,960 --> 00:36:01,000 This is fabulous, I can absolutely see 644 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:03,960 now how the Weetabix are being formed. 645 00:36:06,720 --> 00:36:10,760 Once the biscuits are shaped, they're twice baked. 646 00:36:12,240 --> 00:36:16,520 How long is this oven? This oven is 150 foot long. 647 00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:18,120 Almost comical. 648 00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:22,960 Here we make 250,000 biscuits every single hour. 649 00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:28,560 That equates to 13 million biscuits for the whole site. A day? A day. 650 00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:32,560 End to end, they would stretch from here to Aberdeen and back again. 651 00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:40,760 And 45 minutes after the wheat grains went into the pressure 652 00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:45,000 cooker, they've become Britain's top-selling cereal. 653 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:46,600 Oooh! 654 00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:50,640 This is the end of the process, this is us ready to pack the biscuits. 655 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:56,240 Where do they go? They go all over the UK, all over Europe. 656 00:37:00,240 --> 00:37:05,840 Every grain of wheat has been grown locally, so whether this ends 657 00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:09,480 up on a breakfast table in Brighton or Berlin, 658 00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:14,120 it's all thanks to the farmers around this factory here in Northamptonshire. 659 00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:30,880 It's five hours 39 minutes since the raw corn kernels were delivered. 660 00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:33,800 And back at the factory, I'm now in the coating room, 661 00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:38,120 where my ordinary cornflakes are about to be Crunchy Nutted. 662 00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:41,160 So these peanuts are the nuts on the Crunchy Nut? 663 00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:42,720 Yes. They come from the Americas. 664 00:37:42,720 --> 00:37:46,320 We take them as whole peanuts, then we slice them through and you get that. 665 00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:48,800 How do you stick the nuts to the cornflake? 666 00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:52,720 We use honey, from the Americas again. Molasses sugar and vitamins. 667 00:37:52,720 --> 00:37:56,080 There's, like, a syrup to form a gloop. Why don't you use British honey? 668 00:37:56,080 --> 00:37:58,520 We haven't got anything against British honey. 669 00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:01,880 We need consistent stuff, like, 365 days a year. 670 00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:06,120 Good? Of course it's good. It's a cornflake, nuts and honey. Yeah. 671 00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:12,800 Every 24 hours, the factory mixes together ten tonnes of nut, 672 00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:17,560 three tonnes of honey and two tonnes of molasses, a sweet syrup. 673 00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:22,320 On a bigger scale. 674 00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:30,720 In this room here is your base cornflake. Then you're adding 675 00:38:30,720 --> 00:38:35,040 your honey, your molasses sugar, your vitamin profile and your nuts, all in there. 676 00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:38,280 They're spinning around, they've been coated in that drum. 677 00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:42,960 The sweet molasses and honey glue plus sugar mean there's just over 678 00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:47,160 two and a half teaspoons of sugar in your average bowl of Crunchy Nut. 679 00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:51,200 It's the equivalent of just over 3,000 bowls a minute. No way. Yeah. 680 00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:53,440 No way. Yeah. 681 00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:57,680 As they fall out, they're evenly coated onto this bed here. 682 00:38:57,680 --> 00:38:59,800 That is a sugary rake. 683 00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:02,640 My grandmother used to make me go out in autumn and do that with 684 00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:04,960 a ton of leaves. 685 00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:07,640 Obviously it's got to dry out now a little bit. That's right. 686 00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:09,760 At the minute, you can see it's shiny and it's hot. 687 00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:13,080 What happens now, it goes through the drying process 688 00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:16,720 and then it becomes the standard, dry Crunchy Nut cornflakes that you're used to. 689 00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:23,840 Most of the breakfast cereal we buy is sold ready to eat, 690 00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:26,320 you just add milk and "boof", it's ready. 691 00:39:27,560 --> 00:39:31,400 But there are signs of a breakfast revolution. 692 00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:34,720 The market for cold cereals has barely changed over the past 693 00:39:34,720 --> 00:39:39,520 five years, while porridge sales have zoomed up nearly 60%. 694 00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:43,280 Cherry is investigating its appeal. 695 00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:51,600 There are three bestselling types of oats. 696 00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:53,600 Traditional Scottish oatmeal, 697 00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:56,720 which is simply roughly ground oat kernels. 698 00:39:56,720 --> 00:40:01,800 Jumbo rolled oat meal is whole kernels steamed and flattened. 699 00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:05,600 And pre-cooked and finely ground instant porridge, 700 00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:10,320 which is the big hitter, winning over half of all hot cereal sales. 701 00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:12,440 But does it taste as good, 702 00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:16,920 and do you as much good as traditional or jumbo rolled porridge? 703 00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:24,160 Scoffing more porridge than anyone else are 25- to 34-year-olds, 704 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:29,160 so we're going to test all three types on early morning city commuters. 705 00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:31,680 It's just turned 6am, 706 00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:34,760 but already there is a stream of people going to work. 707 00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:38,560 Today, we're going to ask the hungry office workers to try three 708 00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:42,120 different porridges and tell us which one is their favourite. 709 00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:46,480 It's a porridge showdown and there can be only one winner. 710 00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:48,760 We're cooking up all three types. 711 00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:55,240 In the Scottish oat corner is home-grown chef Gizzi Erskine. 712 00:40:56,560 --> 00:40:59,880 Backing the jumbo rolled oat is Neil Hargett. 713 00:40:59,880 --> 00:41:03,520 A childhood porridge enthusiastic, he's recently rediscovered 714 00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:06,440 its joys and now eats it religiously. 715 00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:12,320 And then there's me, armed with instant porridge, which is great 716 00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:15,160 because my porridge-making skills are a bit rubbish. 717 00:41:15,160 --> 00:41:20,240 Welcome to the porridge showdown. I'm very excited to have you here. 718 00:41:20,240 --> 00:41:22,720 So, the rules of the day are, 719 00:41:22,720 --> 00:41:26,000 you have to use the ingredients provided to you. 720 00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:29,160 You have porridge, milk, water, salt. 721 00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:31,800 You can use them in any proportion you like. 722 00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:36,200 No fancy toppings, just salt, no sugar. Just salt? 723 00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:40,480 Yes, and I'm watching you. Are you ready? Ready? Ready. 724 00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:41,880 Right, let's do this. 725 00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:47,920 Chef Gizzi starts her Scottish oats cooking in water. 726 00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:52,680 Her 30 minute recipe uses equal parts milk to oats. 727 00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:56,480 Why do you cook it so slowly and for such a long time? 728 00:41:56,480 --> 00:42:00,120 The slower you cook, the sort of more evenly it's going to cook. 729 00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:03,600 A lot of people don't cook their oats properly, there's too much bite to them. 730 00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:07,400 I'm going to put some salt in there as well. 731 00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:11,360 Porridge oats contain a soluble fibre called beta-glucan, 732 00:42:11,360 --> 00:42:16,280 which lowers cholesterol and can help control blood sugar levels. 733 00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:19,920 It can even reduce the risk of heart disease. 734 00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:24,320 'Neil has more reason than most for championing this healthy breakfast.' 735 00:42:24,320 --> 00:42:26,640 How often do you have porridge? 736 00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:28,760 I have porridge virtually every day. Really?! 737 00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:30,600 Virtually every day. Why is that? 738 00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:32,760 I had a heart attack 739 00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:36,880 and I went off the fried breakfasts and everything else 740 00:42:36,880 --> 00:42:38,360 and back to basics. 741 00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:41,760 So the porridge has really helped your health? Yeah. 742 00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:45,880 Neil is using twice the quantity of milk to his jumbo rolled oats. 743 00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:48,240 You put the oats in a pan, you put the milk in the pan, 744 00:42:48,240 --> 00:42:50,280 you serve it while it's getting warm. 745 00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:52,360 And his porridge needs 10 minutes. 746 00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:59,120 Gizzi and Neil have nearly finished their porridge. 747 00:42:59,120 --> 00:43:02,320 I'd better crack on with mine. The instructions say... 748 00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:05,320 add milk, cook for two minutes. 749 00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:07,840 I think even I can't get that wrong. 750 00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:16,240 'All three porridges are nearly cooked and there's 751 00:43:16,240 --> 00:43:19,400 'already quite a difference.' 752 00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:23,120 'Gizzi seems the creamiest, Neil's definitely has more texture 753 00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:28,400 'and mine... Well, I'm starting to feel a little less confident.' 754 00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:32,720 Mine's very beigy brown and yours is a kind of creamy white. Yeah... 755 00:43:32,720 --> 00:43:36,000 Also mine smells like... Mine smells like biscuits. 756 00:43:38,280 --> 00:43:42,880 'Unsweetened instant oats do have the same health value as the others 757 00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:45,040 'but, according to the latest research 758 00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:47,680 'from the British Journal of Nutrition, 759 00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:50,600 'Scottish or rolled oats metabolise slower 760 00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:53,560 'and keep you feeling fuller for longer.' 761 00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:57,800 OK, so we've got our three porridges. 762 00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:00,120 Are you confident? Dead confident. Yes? 763 00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:04,240 I'm pretty confident. Yeah? Let's see which ones are best. Right. OK. 764 00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:11,640 Here are three porridges. 765 00:44:11,640 --> 00:44:14,880 Please could you taste them and tell us which one you like the most? 766 00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:17,480 This one's already... It's not as thick. Tastes more milky. 767 00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:21,120 Yeah, it's more like rice pudding. So which one is your favourite? 768 00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:23,560 I'm going to go for the middle one, the creamy, ricey one. 769 00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:26,160 So am I. Same here, yeah. 770 00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:27,320 Do you like porridge? 771 00:44:27,320 --> 00:44:29,720 I love porridge. Do you?! OK, that's good. 772 00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:36,800 Mmm. I can just tell from the noises that you've made 773 00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:38,640 which one you like the most. 774 00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:41,880 I think this one is my favourite. 775 00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:43,560 So do you eat porridge? Yes. 776 00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:45,160 So which one is your favourite? 777 00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:47,640 I think for me it's probably the middle one. 778 00:44:49,240 --> 00:44:51,640 It's thick, it's porridgy. 779 00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:53,760 I like this the most. 780 00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:55,520 I think that one. 781 00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:57,920 I think I like this one. 782 00:45:04,960 --> 00:45:08,160 That's all right. Yes! You've nailed it! 783 00:45:08,160 --> 00:45:10,840 'Although we only tested a small sample, 784 00:45:10,840 --> 00:45:13,120 'we've had some strong opinions 785 00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:15,040 'about the different types of porridge.' 786 00:45:15,040 --> 00:45:16,840 So the results are in. 787 00:45:16,840 --> 00:45:20,200 I came last with four. 788 00:45:21,200 --> 00:45:24,120 Neil, you were next with seven. Ahh. 789 00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:27,680 And, Gizzi, you blew us out the water with 11! 790 00:45:30,160 --> 00:45:34,000 So there you have it, Gizzi's traditional slow-cooked porridge 791 00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:35,960 won hands down. 792 00:45:35,960 --> 00:45:40,160 So if you want a really rich and creamy porridge in the morning, 793 00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:42,760 you may have to get up just a little bit earlier. 794 00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:56,040 My Crunchy Nut Cornflakes have reached the packing area 795 00:45:56,040 --> 00:45:58,320 of the factory just over six hours 796 00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:01,480 since they came here as corn kernels. 797 00:46:01,480 --> 00:46:03,600 First stop is the weighing room. 798 00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:06,320 Every click you hear is a bag of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes being 799 00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:09,680 weighed out to form a perfect 500g packet. 800 00:46:09,680 --> 00:46:12,120 It's like it chorus of metal frogs. 801 00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:17,080 It gives you a really clear indication of how fast 802 00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:19,120 you're making them. Yeah. 803 00:46:19,120 --> 00:46:22,520 It's not as simple as each hopper separately weighing out 804 00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:25,240 500g of cornflakes. 805 00:46:25,240 --> 00:46:29,120 Each of these metal pans contains a weight somewhere between 806 00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:31,680 100, maybe up to 200g of food. 807 00:46:32,760 --> 00:46:35,920 So, for example, that pan might have 100g in it, 808 00:46:35,920 --> 00:46:38,560 that might have 200g in it, 809 00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:42,640 that might have 203, and that one might have sort of 98. 810 00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:44,240 What the computer programme does, 811 00:46:44,240 --> 00:46:47,560 it says there's eight tonnes there all with various different weights. 812 00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:50,200 It selects the best combination of those weights in those pans 813 00:46:50,200 --> 00:46:52,320 to give you the 500g. 814 00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:55,480 That is a stupid system! That's just confuses everything. 815 00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:58,720 Why don't you just weigh out a box worth in one hopper? 816 00:46:58,720 --> 00:47:01,920 Because every cornflake, or Crunchy Nut Cornflake, is slightly different. 817 00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:05,600 So to get an exact weight on the product is very, very difficult. 818 00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:10,920 Each precise combination of cornflakes drops directly 819 00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:16,280 into a bag, which is heat-sealed bottom and top. 820 00:47:17,720 --> 00:47:20,280 To prevent any defective bags getting through, 821 00:47:20,280 --> 00:47:23,040 they go past a sensor that measures them exactly. 822 00:47:24,320 --> 00:47:27,640 This little blue box here is a bit like a laser beam. 823 00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:30,680 That laser beam detected the correct length of that bag. 824 00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:34,200 So if the bag's burst, if you deviate from set length, 825 00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:35,600 that would be rejected. 826 00:47:37,120 --> 00:47:40,400 You're a good teacher, you know that? Thank you very much! 827 00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:46,560 Over in the packaging department, 828 00:47:46,560 --> 00:47:49,080 cardboard is being turned from flat pack into boxes 829 00:47:49,080 --> 00:47:51,200 in one slick move. 830 00:47:52,440 --> 00:47:54,800 The machine even opens each box as it goes. 831 00:47:54,800 --> 00:47:56,880 That's genius! 832 00:47:56,880 --> 00:47:58,600 Six hours and three minutes ago, 833 00:47:58,600 --> 00:48:01,440 each one of these Crunchy Nut Cornflakes 834 00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:03,400 was a plain little kernel of corn. 835 00:48:03,400 --> 00:48:06,400 Now, to make sure they're all as perfect as they should be, 836 00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:09,600 Jim Carney in quality control carries out a random check 837 00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:11,440 every two hours. 838 00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:15,040 How long have you been doing this, Jim? A long time - 42 years. 839 00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:18,680 42 years! So what year did you start? 1973. 840 00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:21,160 If you do find a problem, does that mean you have to stop 841 00:48:21,160 --> 00:48:23,480 the whole batch? It depends on the defect. 842 00:48:23,480 --> 00:48:26,760 If it's a minor, then we can make an adjustment accordingly. 843 00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:29,160 If it's a possible hold, then we stop the line 844 00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:31,160 and we tell relevant supervision. 845 00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:34,200 So how many boxes of cereal are we likely to throw away? 846 00:48:34,200 --> 00:48:38,120 Probably about 10,000. Wow! That can't happen very often. 847 00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:41,280 Hopefully not, but it does happen. It does happen. Yes. 848 00:48:42,600 --> 00:48:46,000 There's a detailed checklist but Jimmy is so experienced, 849 00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:48,840 'he knows in an instant if there's a problem.' 850 00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:52,440 Smell the inside of the box... You do what?! 851 00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:53,920 You smell the inside of the box. 852 00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:56,280 What can you smell from the inside of a box, Jim?! 853 00:48:56,280 --> 00:48:58,680 Well, it's hard to describe - it's through experience, 854 00:48:58,680 --> 00:49:01,720 but sometimes the cardboard itself can actually taste... 855 00:49:01,720 --> 00:49:04,160 Or smell off and then we have to report it. 856 00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:06,280 You know like a wine buff has a perfect nose? 857 00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:08,880 Can you honestly stick your nose over a box 858 00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:11,440 and tell me if it's wrong or not? Yes. Really? Yes. 859 00:49:11,440 --> 00:49:14,600 You do realise you're telling me you can tell the difference 860 00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:18,200 between fresh and stale cardboard? Yes. Jimmy, I love you. 861 00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:21,120 Give me a high five. That is just remarkable! 862 00:49:21,120 --> 00:49:23,880 So, OK, once we've done the box, then what are we looking for? 863 00:49:23,880 --> 00:49:27,160 Right, make sure there's a good seal. 864 00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:29,400 That seems fine. 865 00:49:29,400 --> 00:49:32,640 You pour the contents into this bowl here and feel it. 866 00:49:32,640 --> 00:49:34,400 And feel it against this? 867 00:49:34,400 --> 00:49:36,240 Yes, your standard batch of Crunchy Nut. 868 00:49:36,240 --> 00:49:38,080 That's your template, if you like? Yes. 869 00:49:38,080 --> 00:49:40,200 We're looking for similarity. 870 00:49:40,200 --> 00:49:42,960 Lighter or darker, or too much coating 871 00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:46,440 or not enough coating and then I have a taste. 872 00:49:46,440 --> 00:49:49,080 Can I? Yeah, by all means. 873 00:49:49,080 --> 00:49:51,920 The peanuts, the syrup, the honey... 874 00:49:51,920 --> 00:49:54,600 And then we go to the reference and try that one. 875 00:49:54,600 --> 00:49:57,040 Actually, that really does smell heavily of peanut, 876 00:49:57,040 --> 00:49:59,280 which I've never even considered before. 877 00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:01,240 To me, it's fine. Jim, I believe you. 878 00:50:01,240 --> 00:50:04,080 You have got an expert nose when it comes to breakfast cereal. 879 00:50:04,080 --> 00:50:05,640 Thank you. 880 00:50:09,880 --> 00:50:12,760 The humble cereal has come a long way in the last 100 years. 881 00:50:12,760 --> 00:50:16,400 But the most important development came in the 1950s when admen 882 00:50:16,400 --> 00:50:19,600 realised that the secret weapon in selling a box of cereal 883 00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:22,720 wasn't the cereal, it was the box itself. 884 00:50:30,200 --> 00:50:32,760 We in Britain eat more breakfast cereal 885 00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:35,040 than any other nation in Europe. 886 00:50:35,040 --> 00:50:39,400 In fact, 87% of British adults sit down to a bowl every day. 887 00:50:42,880 --> 00:50:45,480 Back in the first half of the 20th century, 888 00:50:45,480 --> 00:50:48,960 eating cereal had already become well-established. 889 00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:51,880 But it was in 1950s that sealed the deal 890 00:50:51,880 --> 00:50:54,960 for our love affair with cereal. 891 00:50:54,960 --> 00:50:57,520 They're Grrreat! 892 00:50:57,520 --> 00:51:00,480 'I want to find out what triggered the start 893 00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:05,480 'of cereal domination after the war from advertising guru Robin Wight.' 894 00:51:05,480 --> 00:51:10,640 Rationing disappeared, the sugar-coated product arrived 895 00:51:10,640 --> 00:51:13,440 and kids gobbled them up. 896 00:51:13,440 --> 00:51:16,520 And then, at the same time almost, television arrived 897 00:51:16,520 --> 00:51:19,800 with television advertising promoting these new products. 898 00:51:22,160 --> 00:51:24,440 The other game-changer for cereal companies was 899 00:51:24,440 --> 00:51:27,240 a crucial shift in family dynamics. 900 00:51:27,240 --> 00:51:30,760 The power for or what I called the "tyrant child" emerge. 901 00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:34,960 There was a shift to recognise the power of children. 902 00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:36,760 They were the big consumers. 903 00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:43,520 Advertisers responded by inventing pester power. 904 00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:47,040 Dood-L-Oon, you get me free. 905 00:51:47,040 --> 00:51:49,000 And me. 906 00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:54,080 Not only were we showing the brand to a child very early on, 907 00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:57,400 we were then using, what is now called, loyalty marketing, 908 00:51:57,400 --> 00:51:59,800 so that irrespective of the taste, 909 00:51:59,800 --> 00:52:02,680 they'd like to have the toy, they'd like to play games 910 00:52:02,680 --> 00:52:04,360 on the side of the pack. 911 00:52:04,360 --> 00:52:07,760 All of these things are unfolding in Britain and British kids, 912 00:52:07,760 --> 00:52:10,040 and I was one of them, really loved it. 913 00:52:10,040 --> 00:52:11,560 It was fun, it was great. 914 00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:13,400 Of course, while we were enjoying it, 915 00:52:13,400 --> 00:52:15,440 these brands were embedded in our brains. 916 00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:18,920 So even now, all those years later, what's my favourite cereal? 917 00:52:18,920 --> 00:52:20,600 It's Weetabix. 918 00:52:23,960 --> 00:52:27,960 Cereal is the only food on the menu at one London cafe, 919 00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:30,400 owned by Gary and Alan Keery. 920 00:52:30,400 --> 00:52:33,920 So I went to find out why it's still so appealing to adults. 921 00:52:35,680 --> 00:52:39,600 I don't think I've ever seen so many cereals all in one place! 922 00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:41,320 It's quite astounding, isn't it? 923 00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:43,360 I mean, what is so special about cereal? 924 00:52:43,360 --> 00:52:45,280 Well, for us it was when we were kids, 925 00:52:45,280 --> 00:52:47,280 it was the first thing we fell in love with. 926 00:52:47,280 --> 00:52:50,000 We remember going to the supermarket and given that choice once 927 00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:52,680 a week to buy a cereal that you had to eat for the rest of the week, 928 00:52:52,680 --> 00:52:54,680 and it was the biggest responsibility you had. 929 00:52:54,680 --> 00:52:57,560 So do you think that cereals are really just a childhood thing? 930 00:52:57,560 --> 00:53:00,120 I think everything is all about nostalgia these days. 931 00:53:00,120 --> 00:53:03,360 People like to feel a kid again, even though they're not. 932 00:53:05,160 --> 00:53:07,680 We always used to, in the mornings, turn over the cereal box 933 00:53:07,680 --> 00:53:10,480 and you used to do all the little puzzles on the back. Oh, yeah! 934 00:53:10,480 --> 00:53:13,920 We had to pour out the whole cereal and get the toy. 935 00:53:13,920 --> 00:53:16,560 And nostalgia certainly seems to pay. 936 00:53:16,560 --> 00:53:19,880 The six top sellers in the UK today were all invented more 937 00:53:19,880 --> 00:53:22,520 than 30 years ago. 938 00:53:22,520 --> 00:53:25,600 Some ad campaigns have barely changed since the successes 939 00:53:25,600 --> 00:53:29,160 of the 1950s and they're still as effective now 940 00:53:29,160 --> 00:53:31,160 as they were back then. 941 00:53:31,160 --> 00:53:33,040 I loved Coco Pops. 942 00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:35,120 Snap, Crackle and Pop. 943 00:53:35,120 --> 00:53:36,960 BOTH: Snap, Crackle and Pop! 944 00:53:36,960 --> 00:53:39,640 The cereal industry has never stopped growing, 945 00:53:39,640 --> 00:53:44,280 and in the UK it's now worth around £1.57 billion. 946 00:53:54,920 --> 00:53:58,680 At the factory, the final stage of our Crunchy Nut production line 947 00:53:58,680 --> 00:54:01,280 is the distribution area. 948 00:54:02,760 --> 00:54:06,600 Nearly six and a half hours since the start of their journey here, 949 00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:08,440 my cornflakes are boxed up 950 00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:11,680 and travelling just under 3km from packing 951 00:54:11,680 --> 00:54:13,880 and over the sky bridge to the warehouse. 952 00:54:16,200 --> 00:54:18,840 Now, urgent orders for UK supermarkets 953 00:54:18,840 --> 00:54:21,560 are dispatched straightaway, 954 00:54:21,560 --> 00:54:24,000 while cereal destined for Europe and the Middle East 955 00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:26,800 is stored, awaiting shipping. 956 00:54:26,800 --> 00:54:29,640 The warehouse supervisor is Jeff Bolton. 957 00:54:29,640 --> 00:54:32,080 How many boxes are you holding in here? Do you know? 958 00:54:32,080 --> 00:54:35,760 About a quarter of one million. About 10% of what we produce. 959 00:54:35,760 --> 00:54:38,520 So the ones that go to our UK shops, they don't sit around. 960 00:54:38,520 --> 00:54:41,240 No... Straight onto trucks. They're straight out the door. 961 00:54:41,240 --> 00:54:42,840 The scale is unbelievable! 962 00:54:44,920 --> 00:54:48,240 'Every box of Crunchy Nut cartons has been given a barcode 963 00:54:48,240 --> 00:54:51,760 'so it can be scanned into the system before getting some 964 00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:54,520 'top to toe plastic protection.' 965 00:54:54,520 --> 00:54:58,800 Hey-hey! This is a wrapping machine. 966 00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:02,120 All those Crunchy Nut cartons are going to get wrapped for stabilisation. 967 00:55:02,120 --> 00:55:05,280 We all need one of those for our suitcase when we go on holiday! 968 00:55:07,320 --> 00:55:10,040 It's going to come forward, get labelled. Yeah, you. I'm not... 969 00:55:10,040 --> 00:55:12,440 You're not going to get labelled, but I'd watch your back 970 00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:14,800 because there's a vehicle coming. What's happening?! 971 00:55:14,800 --> 00:55:19,400 I don't feel safe any more! What's happening? There's going to be a vehicle coming to collect this. 972 00:55:19,400 --> 00:55:22,840 22 sophisticated robot shuttles do all the lifting. 973 00:55:24,280 --> 00:55:27,880 Eight white ones collect the boxes and take them to the loading bay, 974 00:55:27,880 --> 00:55:31,480 or hand them to the 14 red ones, 975 00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:34,000 which shelve them ready for dispatch. 976 00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:35,640 I mean, how do they work? 977 00:55:35,640 --> 00:55:38,480 Top of the vehicle we've got a laser spinning round, 978 00:55:38,480 --> 00:55:40,520 we've got a computer inside the truck, 979 00:55:40,520 --> 00:55:42,360 we've got a computer in the control room 980 00:55:42,360 --> 00:55:44,640 and that's where it's getting its position from. 981 00:55:44,640 --> 00:55:47,640 They are always finding their position. It also knows where to take it. 982 00:55:47,640 --> 00:55:50,440 It knows where it's going to, where it's picking, what it's doing. 983 00:55:50,440 --> 00:55:53,080 All automated and programmed by boffins. 984 00:55:53,080 --> 00:55:55,520 Do the white ones handover to the red ones? 985 00:55:55,520 --> 00:55:58,280 At the end of the conveyer... No! ..the red ones will pick them up. 986 00:55:58,280 --> 00:56:00,200 And the red ones look after the warehouses? 987 00:56:00,200 --> 00:56:02,520 The red ones look after the warehouse and the storage. 988 00:56:02,520 --> 00:56:04,440 Do they have a game of cricket? 989 00:56:04,440 --> 00:56:06,680 No, they won't mix. They won't mix. They won't mix. 990 00:56:12,320 --> 00:56:15,480 Do you know what? I used to see sci-fi films about this 991 00:56:15,480 --> 00:56:18,440 when I was a little kid. So did I. 992 00:56:18,440 --> 00:56:22,280 The computer is capable of simultaneously tracking 993 00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:27,080 all 25,000 cartons heading for Europe and beyond. 994 00:56:27,080 --> 00:56:28,880 How many humans are there here? 995 00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:31,480 I have three operators and one craftsman looking after the 996 00:56:31,480 --> 00:56:34,120 whole process in here. Four people and a team of robots? 997 00:56:34,120 --> 00:56:38,280 Four people, team of robots. That is unbelievable. 998 00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:43,120 That is remarkable. A million boxes of cereal a day. 999 00:56:43,120 --> 00:56:45,800 Wow! Wow! 1000 00:56:48,160 --> 00:56:51,840 For the past six hours and 40 minutes, I've followed 1001 00:56:51,840 --> 00:56:56,840 corn kernels through a hugely ambitious mega machine process. 1002 00:56:56,840 --> 00:56:59,120 They've been cooked, squashed and stretched, 1003 00:56:59,120 --> 00:57:01,840 toasted and covered in honey and nuts. 1004 00:57:01,840 --> 00:57:04,360 That's it, that's the last pallet. 1005 00:57:04,360 --> 00:57:05,960 Let's get this truck loaded. 1006 00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:14,680 Those Crunchy Nut Cornflakes could be delivered to supermarkets 1007 00:57:14,680 --> 00:57:17,840 within 24 hours of being raw corn. 1008 00:57:17,840 --> 00:57:20,720 Yorkshire and Humberside are the biggest cereal eaters 1009 00:57:20,720 --> 00:57:23,720 in Britain, but they'll also be sent to Europe and all over the 1010 00:57:23,720 --> 00:57:26,160 world, as far away as Asia. 1011 00:57:27,440 --> 00:57:30,520 The scale of this production is very impressive, 1012 00:57:30,520 --> 00:57:35,240 but what really amazes me is the length these people go to. 1013 00:57:35,240 --> 00:57:38,120 They are taking natural products - it's corn, 1014 00:57:38,120 --> 00:57:42,880 honey and nuts and they bend them and they shape them and condition 1015 00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:48,800 them until they give us the exact same cereal every single time, 1016 00:57:48,800 --> 00:57:51,360 bowl after bowl after bowl, millions of times. 1017 00:57:52,800 --> 00:57:54,800 That is impressive. 1018 00:57:59,680 --> 00:58:01,120 'Next time...' 1019 00:58:01,120 --> 00:58:02,560 Bring her in. 1020 00:58:02,560 --> 00:58:05,560 '..we'll take you inside the largest crisp factory in the world...' 1021 00:58:05,560 --> 00:58:07,400 That's a packet of crisps? 1022 00:58:07,400 --> 00:58:11,600 '..as they make 5 million bags of crisps in 24 hours.' 1023 00:58:11,600 --> 00:58:14,480 How did he do it that fast? 1024 00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:17,000 'We'll reveal the secrets to keeping crisps fresh...' 1025 00:58:17,000 --> 00:58:19,640 Every bag of crisps is a bag of nitrogen 1026 00:58:19,640 --> 00:58:23,280 '..and Cherry's on a production line that makes 12 million 1027 00:58:23,280 --> 00:58:24,840 'monster feet a day.' 1028 00:58:24,840 --> 00:58:26,920 It's really mesmerising to watch. 1029 00:58:26,920 --> 00:58:29,800 That is the most crisps I've ever seen in one place!