All language subtitles for Inside.the.Factory.S02E01.Cereal.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-BTN_track3_[eng]

- ♪ MTV

- Tomorrow morning in Britain
we will get through

over one-and-a-half million
bowls of corn flakes.

[truck rumbling]

- And it all starts
with thousands of tons of corn

shipped from around the world.

- Within days it will be
on breakfast tables

all over the country,

but how do you manufacture
breakfast cereal on this scale?

- We've been given access

to the largest cereal factory
in Europe to find out.

- I'm Gregg Wallace.
Give me crunchy nut!

And I'm going inside to follow
this epic production line.

That is fabulous.

I'll reveal the secrets

to ensuring
the breakfast cereals

we've all grown up with.

Whoa hot Rice Krispies.

Taste exactly right every time.

And the massive operation.

This scale is unbelievable!

That delivers cereal
all over the UK every day.

If I hadn't a just seen that
I would not have believed that.

[Paul laughs]

- I'm Cherry Healey.

Oh that's the dream.

And I'll find out where
special nutrient is added

to our cereal.

- One in five of us are
actually deficient in vitamin
D.

- One in five of us?

- And historian Ruth Goodman

looks at what we used to eat
to start the day.

- Gammon.
- Black pudding.

- We've got a pigs head.
- It's hearty.

- It's hearty.
- [Ruth laughs]

- In the next 24 hours over
a million boxes of cereal

will come out
of this one factory.

And we're going to show
you how they do it.

Welcome to "Inside the
Factory".

[thud]

[upbeat music]

- This is Kellogg's
Manchester factory.

It is the largest producer
of breakfast cereal in Europe.

And tonight
I'm gonna watch closely

as this handful of corn
gets transformed

into one of Britain's biggest
selling breakfast cereals,

Crunchy Nut corn flakes
in less than 24 hours.

It all begins nearly
nine-thousand miles away

in Argentina.

Where the corn is grown
on farms across an area

the size of the Isle of White.

During harvesting the kernels
are stripped from the corn cob.

Then once a month
are put onto a ship

bound for the UK.

- After three weeks at sea
it arrives here

at the Port of Liverpool
with enough corn

to make over half a billion
bowls of corn Flakes.

[upbeat music]

At the harbor side corn mill
first the kernels are cleaned.

Then the outer skin is removed
along with the germ,

the bit that attaches
the kernel to the cob.

[bus horn beeps]

That's now on its way
to the factory in Manchester

where in a matter of days
the contents of that truck

will be the corn flakes
on your table.

[truck rumbling]

- The truck full of corn
kernels

takes around
an hour and twenty minutes

to reach Kellogg's.

Their Manchester factory
as big as 18 football fields

is a local landmark.

And the corn flake
production line keeps moving

24 hours a day,
seven days a week

making a million packets
of cereal every single day.

Factory director Tony O'Brian
is in charge.

- So this is corn comin' in--

- On that wagon.

Over a 24 hour period

we'll bring in about
nine or 10 deliveries

and that'll make about
seven million bowls of cereal.

- It's a scale
I can't possibly imagine,

and I've got
a big breakfast bowl

let me tell ya.

And if no corn came in
how long would it take

'til Britain ran out
of corn flakes?

- Here we've got about
700 ton of corn.

I reckon we've got
about two days' worth of.

- [Gregg laughs] Is that all?

- From supply.
- Is that all we've got?

Then my phone would be
going very warm indeed.

- If all goes to plan
this precious cargo

will be turned into boxes
of cereal in under 24 hours.

[machinery whirring]

Getting it into the factory
is the responsibility

of logistics manager
Paul Davies.

- And that's naturally
gonna lift that up.

- And he's entrusting
that job to me.

- So what you're gonna do
is you're gonna pull that back.

- Like that?
- Yeah.

Then put that shoe

into the ready for delivery
for the corn.

- I've never done this.

If I get this wrong

I'm gonna waste 20 ton of corn
all over the floor.

- You're not gonna get it
wrong. - Is that?

- I'm not gonna
let you get that wrong.

- Thanks.

- Okay?
- Okay.

- Now what?
- Take this.

Then turn it to
open up the slide.

- That's a terrible
responsibility I got.

- That's it.

- The 24 hour count down

from kernels
to corn flakes begins.

- That is a corn waterfall
a corn avalanche.

- Tomorrow's corn flakes.
- Yep.

- That's incredible mate.

That is incredible.

[upbeat music]

It takes an hour
to pour all those kernels

into the silo store.

They're a good 30 meters away
from the factory plant.

But if the silo was any closer

it could be dangerous
because although it's rare

grain dust can be
highly explosive.

How on earth does
it get into there

to make the bowls of cereal?

- It drops from there
into an elevator

which takes it up to the top.

It then drops into the silo
and gets blown across there

into the plumbing.

- It gets blown
over that bridge?

- It does yeah.
- No way!

I wouldn't lie to you Gregg
I promise.

[upbeat music]

- Blowing the kernels over

is the quickest
and most efficient way

of transporting them.

It gets madder here
by the minute Paul.

- You think so?
- Yeah.

The magic begins
in the cooking hall.

Fundamentally a massive kitchen

containing 26 super
sized pressure cookers.

In charge is head chef
or corn unit manager Dan Fox.

- This is the first stage
where it starts its process

in becoming a corn flake.

So what do we here essentially
we cook the corn.

- The corn is cooked
one ton at a time.

Way!

When the hatch is in position.

It's like a little
mini submarine.

The press of a button.

- Ready?
- Yep.

Signals for the release
of the corn kernels.

I can hear 'em.
I can hear 'em coming.

All the way from
the storage silo

through a 250 meter long pipe.

So you've got a ton
of corn in here.

That means by reckoning

we need half a swimming pool
full of milk.

And about 30 kilos of sugar.

An hour and five minutes
after arriving off the lorry

the corn is sealed inside
and ready to steam.

The pressure will reach 20 PSI,

almost twice as high
as a household pressure cooker.

- We add to it barley malt,
iron, sugar, and salt.

And those natural flavors

help take on
this characteristic color.

We add a quarter into that
corn.

Swells it out.

That makes it more malleable

which then enables it to be
in the right sort of format

to be made into a corn flake.

- I just. It's just.
Unfathomable.

The pressure cookers
continuously rotate

to make sure
the corn cooks evenly.

Can you burn it?

- You can't burn it as such

but what you could do
is absolutely really ruin it

by overcooking it tremendous.

So a bit like I say
if you're cooking pasta

you could overcook the pasta
so it just becomes a slop.

- And after one hour
and 50 minutes it's ready.

Whoa!

That feels warm and tropical.

- It's just sort of like
dark sandy sort of color.

You see it's free flowing

and essentially
it's doubled in size.

- The ton of steaming
moist hot corn

is whisked away
to start drying out.

Are you a bit
of a cereal anorak?

[Dan laughs]

- Probably I am actually yes.
Secretly yeah.

- How many times have
you turned around

and started talking to people
about their breakfast cereal?

- To be honest you
know quite a lot.

And at times I do
it people's eyes do glaze over

I'm not gonna lie to you.

And then my wife says come
on wind it up wind it up.

I'm probably a corn flake nerd
yeah probably right yeah.

- I've just realized something,

I'm cooking breakfast
for 30 thousand people.

But not everybody has
breakfast.

[upbeat music]

- Almost half of us
admit to missing breakfast

at least once a week.

And some people don't eat
breakfast at all.

We've all heard the saying

breakfast is the most
important meal of the day.

But is it true?

Does it really matter
if we give it a miss?

I've come to Leeds University
to meet two people

who've researched
this very subject.

Professors Louise Dye
and Katie Adolphus.

I have to confess
I quite often miss breakfast.

To me extra time in bed
is always gonna win.

Is it really that bad?

- It is that bad.
- [Cherry laughs]

- So basically breakfast
does have a short-term

beneficial effect on your
cognitive performance

across the morning.

So those that have
eaten breakfast

do better on tests
of reaction time,

memory, attention

than those who have
skipped breakfast.

- Eating breakfast
in the morning

actually prevents a decline
in cognitive function.

- It's not gonna make me
super woman

but it's gonna keep me
constant.

With the help of the professors
I've set up an experiment

so that I can see the effects

of ignoring breakfast
for myself.

It's seven AM the sun
hasn't even come up,

but we're here
at this Leeds office

and we're waiting for
the workers to arrive

'cause they're gonna be
our guinea pigs.

Our test subjects are creatives
based at a work space hub

and none of them have
had breakfast yet.

Before we start the experiment

professor Dye needs
a baseline reading

of their cognitive function.

- The first test
is a memory test.

The second test
is a reaction time test.

And the third test
is a sustained attention test.

- Fist the volunteers
are shown 16 pictures

and 10 minutes later asked
to recall which ones they saw.

Next reactions are assessed

by a black circle appearing
on the left

or the right of the screen.

They must respond correctly
as soon as they see it.

In the attention test
they must press a button

whenever they spot three odd
or three even numbers in a row.

- That was really hard!
- [Louise laughs]

- It was very hard.

And now we will
you're in two groups.

So one group will get breakfast
and the other I'm afraid won't.

- So sorry to break this to you

but team A you don't
get any breakfast.

You just get a glass of water.

And team B you get breakfast.

And you can have as much
or as little as you like.

Go for it.

But just try not
to you know show that lot.

[glasses clinking]

Now all our volunteers
need to work as normal.

An hour-and-a-half
after the experiment began

and I'm checking in
with the water only workers.

Are you a breakfast eater?

- Yes I would've had
a massive bowl of porridge

about an hour ago.

- And how are you feelin'
right now?

- I'm pretty hungry.
Just really distracting.

- Has it affected you so far?

- Well we've mainly been
looking

at pictures of food
on the internet.

- So yeah we're quite
distracted I guess.

[women laugh]

- I am a little worried
about it.

I'm thinking so much about
the fact that I'm hungry

that I'm worried about how well

I would be able
to manage this space.

- Two hours in and the
professors are retesting

both the control group
and the fasting group.

- By this time they've
already exerted quite

a lot of effort,

they've been performing
all morning,

they've gone back to their
desks and carried on working.

So that they should
be tiring now.

And we'd expect their
performance to be declining.

- So if you're used
to having breakfast every day

missing it is likely
to be detrimental.

- So when they haven't
eaten breakfast

they feel very sluggish,

they feel that they can't
focus, not as alert,

and they also feel
very frustrated and angry

and quite hard done by that
they haven't eaten breakfast.

- I want to see
if our hungry group

is finding the test any harder.

The numbers thing

they were dancing at me
by about halfway through.

- Well.

- Yeah the numbers bit

was it was really hard
to concentrate.

And by the end
I was just kind of felt

like I was in a blur of
numbers.

- I'm doing okay
a bit of a foggy head.

Just putting numbers together

popping them into triple
check everything,

'cause I'm my concentration
is a bit shot.

- How much do you think your
productivity has been affected?

- I think massively so.

Yeah I've done maybe a third
of what I could normally do.

[upbeat music]

- Three-and-a-half hours
after we started

and after the final test

how did our office
workers compare?

The breakfast eaters sailed
through all the tasks.

The workers without food
did okay on the memory test

but they were four percent
slower on reaction times

and a whole six percent behind
on the attention test.

So it looks like the experiment
has worked.

People who didn't have
breakfast

really did struggle
with their performance.

- Absolutely.

- From the studies in our lab

the task that
measures attention,

performance is normally
seven percent lower

in the breakfast skippers

compared to those
who have eaten breakfast.

- It's quite a big percentage.

So it doesn't matter
if you're a toast or porridge

or a scrambled egg person,

think twice before
skipping breakfast.

I know that I will.

[car horn beeping]

[machinery whirring]

[upbeat music]

- Back at the cereal factory

and our corn kernels
are in the drying room

three hours after
they arrived here.

They've soaked up
moisture during cooking

so now they're moving slowly
on a looped conveyor belt

through this nearly
100 foot long

extremely noisy
double deck-er dryer.

Is this the biggest bit of kick
in the factory?

- It's probably
the single biggest

and long piece of equipment.

- That's all dryer.

- Yeah so we star there
all the way along, down,

all the way back again.

But it's it probably
in the range

of several thousand bowls

just going past
your shoulder now.

- You won't ever
get closer to this

about a corn flakes ever.

- Absolutely.

I'm sure if there
was Guinness book of records

over here and we get
a bowl big enough

it would be the biggest bowl
of corn flakes.

- It takes two-and-a-half hours

of hot air fanning over the
corn before it's ready.

What are you looking for?

- That was the corn coming out
of your cooker.

Like there you can see

it's got that sort
of golden color

and it's got a soft.

- But not wet.
- Just squishy.

- And as it goes through
the drying process

what we're looking
for at the end

is this sort of texture.

So it should be dryer, darker,

but it should
be slightly harder.

- Yeah. Slight bounce on it.

It's got a little bit of give.

- Yeah and actually
that's absolutely critical.

If we dry it too fast
or too hard

we're in danger
of crushing it into a powder.

- If one stage breaks down
what happens?

- Everything before it stops.

So it's not just this section
that stops,

it's all the 26 tons of cookers
beforehand that stop.

- That could cost millions.

- That's correct yes.

- I can't believe they've given
all that responsibility

to somebody like you Dan.

- Sometimes I can't believe it
myself Gregg if I'm honest.

[Dan laughs]

- The next stop
is the milling room

where our corn kernels
still moist in the middle

are about to be transformed
into a much more familiar
shape.

They roll through that mill.

- What do you mean roll?
Squashed?

- Imagine a mango.

They share it,

sort of flatten it
and elongate it.

- Mate they squash it?
- Yeah.

- The kernels are fed between
two giant steel rollers

which turn in
opposite directions,

one slightly faster
than the other.

That means the kernels
don't get crushed

but stretched
all in a second or less.

Going through here we've got
there's 200 bowls a minute.

- They now look like
corn flakes to me.

- They might look
like corn flakes

but they're not corn flakes
yet.

See their feel, feel it.

- You're all right, feel it.
- Oh it's wet.

Whoa it's.

- Scrunch it, you can
make it into a ball.

- Yeah that's not right.

- No.
- It's all stretchy.

- And rubbery.
- Yeah.

- What have you done
to my corn flakes Dan?

- So would you like that
in your breakfast bowl

in the morning?

No.

- I'm about to discover how Dan
turns my squidgy wet flakes

into the classic crunch
we're all familiar with.

But around 150 years ago
I wouldn't have had

any kind of corn flakes
in my breakfast bowl

because cereal
hadn't been invented.

Now Ruth Goodman is finding out

what the Victorian's
were eating instead.

[lively music]

- Breakfast before cereal
was a gut busting business.

Wow this is quite a spread
here.

- Isn't it just?
- [Ruth laughs]

- I'm sitting down
to a 19th century feast

with Historian Serran
Evans Charington.

So what exactly
have we got here?

- We'll start off nice
little bit of boiled lobster

some langoustines.

We've got meat pies,
bacon, cold cuts of meat.

- Gammon.
- Gammon, black pudding,

we've got a pigs head
filled with jellied brawn.

- It's hearty.
- It's hearty. [Ruth laughs]

So your breakfast would change

depending on what you'd
have the night before

what was left over.

- One thing
I'm really noticing is that

the enormous amount of protein
that's on the table.

And the complete lack of fruit.

- Yes but this is really
high class dining.

You had a really
hearty breakfast

that was going to set
you up for the day

and keep you going
until you ate again.

We're not thinking
about our waistline.

We're not thinking about
the nutritional value of it.

And it's thought that this
is good for you at this point.

[soft music]

- Even the average Victorian
was gorging down a mind
boggling

four-and-a-half
thousand calories a day.

Almost twice the amount
we eat now.

In a modern life if you sat
down to this every day

well you'd give yourself

a whole range
of health problems.

- They are getting lots of
gout,

you've got problems
with obesity,

all sorts of gastro
intestinal problems.

- Put simply this breakfast
made people fat and flatulent.

Things had to change.

So in 1863 an American doctor
James Caleb Jackson

came up with an alternative
for his patients.

A healthy vegetarian breakfast
that he called granular.

And we're going to try
and recreate it.

So what we're looking for

is stiff wallpaper
paste consistency.

- We're mixing wheat flour
and water to make a dough.

- We want to bake it

until it's the consistency
of a hard brick.

- That's nine hours in a low
temperature oven then cooled

and put back in
for another nine hours.

- So this has been twice baked.

- Oh this is quite hard
isn't it?

- Yeah.
- It's tough.

Break it up into
these little pieces.

We want something like that.

- Yeah but it's hard
going flaking it.

- The flakes now need
to be ground.

Now that's starting to look
much more like a cereal.

But before you want to eat it
you've got to soak it
overnight.

- After about 30 hours
of preparation

a very plain breakfast
is served.

- Brace yourself.

It's not horrible.

It's not exciting.

Worthy I think
is what it tastes like.

-That is what it's meant to be.

I can't say
it's a food for pleasure.

- I mean it tastes
like a health food.

There's no sugar in this,
there's no saltiness,

it's just very simple.

Pleasant or not
Jackson had invented

the first commercially
available breakfast cereal.

It wasn't profitable

but it lead to other
health specialists

developing their own varieties.

And this is where
the Kellogg story starts.

In 1894 doctor John Kellogg

Chief Medical Officer
of a sanatorium,

and his brother William Keith,

were trying to make granola
for patients using corn,

oatmeal, and wheat.

One day William Keith was
experimenting with wheat grains

and over softened
a batch by mistake.

Instead of destroying them

he tried rolling
and baking the mushy grains.

And by accident created
the wheat flake of today.

And from there it was
but a short step

to creating
the very first corn flakes.

[corn flakes rustling]

[machinery whirring]

[upbeat music]

- Back at Kellogg's factory

corn flakes might still be
their most iconic product,

but it's not their only one.

Here they also make
chocolate, frosted,

Frosties, and raisin wheat.

And I wanna see
what else is cooking.

Technician Paul Richardson

is the man who puts the snap,
crackle and pop,

into one of their
childhood classics.

I feel a bit silly
but I never realized

that Rice Krispies actually
were made from rice.

- Well the clue's
in the title isn't it?

- What rice is it?
- Arborio.

- That's Italian risotto rice,
I've got that at home.

- Yeah.

- After cooking and flavoring

the rice is dried, trimmed,
and put aside.

And then it has to be puffed up
by hot air.

- On our oven here
we have a thousand tubes

it actually puffs it up

so you've got your snap
your crackle and your pop.

- So from there to there
in about 20 feet

of tubes hot air and color.

- Correct.

- I'm gonna get rice
to Rice Krispy.

- That's right.
- Oh!

- As you can see it's hot.

- Whoa. Hot Rice Krispies.

If I hadn't a just seen that
I would not have believed that.

[Paul laughs]

[upbeat music]

Half the Rice Krispies get
extra special treatment.

They're covered in a mixture
of cocoa, water, and sugar.

On their way
to becoming Coco Pops.

[upbeat music]

Every Kellogg cereal
is fortified

with minerals and vitamins.

Most recently in some
varieties vitamin D.

Cherry is finding out why we
need it added to our breakfast.

- Vitamin D is essential
to absorb calcium

for healthy teeth and bones.

But new research suggests

that there are other
important benefits.

I've come to St. Bart's
and London Center

for immunobiology to meet
professor Adrian Martineau.

- For the last 10 years
we've been working

on the effects of vitamin D
on the immune system.

And particular on resistance
to the common cold.

- So what did you discover?

- We've done clinical trials
and the results have shown

in people who have low
vitamin D levels to start with

giving them extra
vitamin D supplement

can reduce the risk of getting
a cold by around 50 percent.

- That's absolutely huge.

So if you have
low vitamin D levels

topping them up can
potentially prevent you

from getting the common cold
by up to 50 percent?

- Exactly right.

[upbeat music]

- It's not just colds you risk
if you're low in vitamin D.

Serious conditions from type
one diabetes to some cancers,

as well as children developing
bone softening rickets

have been linked to severe
vitamin D deficiency.

One way we can get this
super nutrient is sunshine.

We can produce it by our skin
converting ultraviolet light.

So if we spend plenty
of time outdoors

then surely we'll
get enough of it.

Not in the short days of winter

according to nutritionist
Angelique Panagos.

- So the sun actually has
to be at a certain angle,

so it has to be about
50 degrees above the horizon.

And that way the UVB rays

can actually penetrate
through the atmosphere

and help us
to synthesize vitamin D.

- But in the UK the sun
in winter is always very low.

The sun's unfortunately
it's letting us down.

So from about October
through to April

we can't synthesize vitamin D.

- So if you live in the UK

and you go out into
the sunshine in winter

you're not really getting
a vitamin D benefit.

- You're not getting
the vitamin D benefit.

- Although we store
the vitamin D

we make in the summer

it can be depleted
over the winter.

Research has shown
that one in five of us

are actually deficient
in vitamin D.

- One in five of us?
- One in five.

- That's enough to make me

want to get my own
levels checked.

So I'm using a self-testing
kit.

If 10 million people
are vitamin D deficient

then there's quite
a good chance that I am too.

But there's only one way
to find out.

Two weeks later
my results are back.

Now it's time to find out

if I'm one of the 20 percent
of the population

that is deficient
in this sunshine vitamin.

Adequate.

That's not good. Adequate.

- Good excuse to go
on more holidays.

- Okay. [Cherry laughs]

So my vitamin D levels
at the moment are okay,

but what happens if they dip.

What can I eat
to keep them topped up?

- So you can get some
vitamin D from food sources.

So oily fish is a good one,

but you'd need to be eating
a lot of one food

to be getting
that vitamin D kick

that we're looking for.

- To get my 10 microgram
daily dose

I would need to eat either
one fresh salmon filet

or six eggs or eight
homemade beef burgers,

52 bacon rations,
or 333 fried mushrooms.

Taking a vitamin D supplement
would be easier.

And having a boost
at breakfast could also help.

The sunshine vitamin
is put into a range of cereals

voluntarily by Kellogg's

and most other
cereal manufacturers.

Providing a tenth of the
recommended daily allowance.

[machinery whirring]

[upbeat music]

- At the mega cereal factory

our corn kernels have
reached the toasting area.

It's five hours and 36 minutes
since they entered the factory.

And they're halfway
to becoming a bowl

of proper corn flakes.

Wow.

Now those soggy flattened
flakes need crisping up.

- Then here you dry it
and toast it.

- That's a circular
rotating toaster?

- In simple terms yes, it's.

Taking the moist flake
and making it crispy.

- Yes and as it rotates
around there

the rotation action separates
the real flakes out.

- There might be gooey flake

becomes separate
like crispy ones.

- Absolutely yes.

[upbeat music]

It's in there for about seven
to 10 seconds.

- Oh!
- Yeah.

- That is the fastest cereal
I've ever seen.

- Yes.

- Incredibly these corn flakes
are coming through

at a rate of 10 bowls a second.

Help yourself take it.

- They're hot.
- They are hot yeah.

- It's like a plate
of hot chips.

Hey have you ever thought
about selling hot corn flakes?

- Well it's a treat not
many people get to experience.

You won't get a fresher
corn flake than that.

The Corn flakes are good to go.

Great big river of corn flakes.

- That's right they're
corn flakes were equal-er,

we can turn them
into Crunchy Nut corn flakes

or Frosties.

- Really?
- Really, yes.

- So right now there could
be any one of three?

- Any one of three yes.

- Five hours 36 minutes
and 15 seconds in

and the plain Corn flakes
head off for packing.

While Frosties is diverted
away for extra flavoring

along with Crunchy Nut,

which was invented here
right at the factory.

I'd love to make Crunchy Nut.

How do you stop them
going up to corn flakes?

- I'll make a phone call.
- Can I make that phone call?

- Here one second.

- No way.

Is that Steve?

Steve can we divert
some to Crunchy Nut?

Give me Crunchy Nut,
go Crunchy Nut, do it Steve.

Yay!

- Corn flakes up that way,
Crunchy Nut down that way.

- Am I going there next?

- You'll be going there
very shortly yes.

- I'm becoming very
fond of you Dan.

- Well I think it's mutual.

It's five hours 39 minutes

since the raw corn kernels
were delivered.

I'm now in the coating room

where my ordinary corn flakes
are about to be crunchy nutted.

So these peanuts are nuts
you put on the Crunchy Nut?

- Yes they come from
the America's.

We take them as whole peanuts

then we slice them through
and you get that.

- How do you stick the nuts
to the corn flake?

- We use honey from
the America's again,

molasses, sugar, and vitamins.

It's like a syrup
to form of glue.

- Why don't you
use British honey?

- We haven't got anything
against British honey.

We need consistent
supply 365 days a year.

- Good?

- Of course it's good,

it's a corn flake nuts
and honey.

- Yeah.

- Every 24 hours
the factory mixes together

10 tons of nuts,
three tons of honey,

and two tons of molasses,
a sweet syrup.

On the biggest scale.

In this drum here
is your base corn flake,

then you're adding your honey
your molasses your sugar

your bit of a profile
and your nuts all in there,

they're spinning around
and being coated in that drum.

- The sweet molasses
and honey glue plus sugar

mean there's just
over two-and-a-half of sugar

in your average bowl
of Crunchy Nut.

Obviously it's gotta dry up
now a little bit hasn't it?

- That's right.

So at the minute you can
see it's shiny and it's hot.

So what happens now is it goes
through drying process

and then it's done
dry Crunchy Nut corn flake

that you're used to.

- My Crunchy Nut corn flakes

have reached the packing area
of the factory.

Just over six hours since
they came here as corn kernels.

First stop is the weighing
room.

- So every click you here

is a bag of Crunchy Nut corn
flakes being weighed out

to form a perfect
500 gram packet.

It's like a chorus
of metal frogs.

Gives you a really
clear indication

of how fast you're making 'em.

It's not as simple
as each hopper

separately weighing
out 500 grams of Corn flakes.

- Each of these metal
pan contains a weight

somewhere between 100 maybe up
to 200 grams of food.

So for example that pan
might have 100 grams in it,

that might have 200 grams in
it, that might have 203,

and that one might
have sort of 98.

What the computer program does

it says there's eight tons
there

all with various
different weights.

It selects the best combination

of those weights in your pans
to give you the 500 grams.

- That is a stupid system.
- [Dan laughs]

- That just confuses
everything.

Why don't you just weigh out
a box worth in one hopper?

- Because every corn flake

every corn flake
is slightly different.

So to get an exact
weight on the product

is very, very difficult.

[light music]

Each precise combination
of corn flakes

drops directly into a bag

which is heat sealed
bottom and top.

To prevent any defective bags
getting through

they go past a sensor
that measures them exactly.

- Right on the blue box here
it's a bit like a laser beam.

That laser beam detects
the correct length of that bag.

So the bags first it's easy
to see that length

and that will be rejected.

- You're a good teacher
you know that?

Thanks very much.

[upbeat music]

Over in the packaging
department,

cardboard is being turned

from flat pack into boxes
in one slick move.

The machine even opens
each box as it goes.

That's genius.

Six hours and three minutes ago

each one of these
Crunchy Nut corn flakes

was a plain little
kernel of corn.

Now to make sure they're all
as perfect as they should be

Jim Karney in quality control

carries out a random
check every two hours.

How long you been
doing this Jim?

- A long time, 42 years.

- 42 years?

If you do find a problem

does that mean you have
to stop the whole batch?

- Depends on the defect.

If it's minor then we can make
an adjustment accordingly.

If it's possible holes
then we stop the line

and we tell relevancy
provision.

- So how many boxes of cereal
we likely to throw away?

- Probably about 10,000.

- Wow that can't happen
very often.

Hopefully not,
but it does happen.

- It does happen?
- Yes.

- There's a detailed check list
but Jimmy is so experienced

he knows in an instant
if there's a problem.

- Smell the inside of the box.

- You do what?

- You smell the inside
of the box.

[Gregg laughs]

And what can you smell
from the inside of a box Jim?

- Well it's hard to describe,
it's through experience,

but there's sometimes
the cardboard itself

can actually taste or smell
off.

Then we have to report it.

- You know like a wine buff
has a perfect nose,

can you honestly stick
your nose over a box

and tell me
if it's wrong or not?

- Yes.

- Really?
- Yes.

- So okay and once
we've done the box

then what are we looking for?

- Right.
[plastic rustling]

Make sure there's a good seal.

That seems fine.

We pour the contents
into this bowl here.

- Feel it.
- And feel it against this?

- Yes your standard
batch of Crunchy Nut.

- That's your template
if you like?

Yes. We're looking
for similarity.

Actually lighter or darker.

Too much coating
or not enough coating.

And then I have a taste.

- [cereal crunching]
- Can I?

- Yeah by all means.

Your peanuts,
the syrup, the honey.

And then we go to the rough-ins
and try that one.

- To me it's fine.
- Jim I believe you.

You have got an expert nose

when it comes
to breakfast cereal.

- Thank you.
- [Gregg laughs]

The humble cereal's come

a long way
in the last 100 years.

But the most important
development came in the 1950's

when admin realized
that the secret weapon

in selling a box of cereal
wasn't the cereal.

It was the box itself.

[upbeat music]

- We in Britain eat
more breakfast cereal

than any other nation in
Europe.

In fact 87 percent
of British adults

sit down to a bowl every day.

[light instrumental music]

Back in the first half
of the twentieth century

eating cereal had already
become well established.

But it was the 1950's
that sealed the deal

for our love affair with
cereal.

- They're great!

- I want to find out
what triggered

the start of cereal domination
after the war

from advertising guru
Robin Wright.

- Rationing. Disappeared.

The sugar coated product
arrived and kids gobble them
up.

And then at the same time
almost television arrived

with television advertising
promoting these new products.

[light instrumental music]

- The other game changer
for cereal companies

was a crucial shift
in family dynamics.

- The power of what I call
the tyrant child emerge.

[Ruth laughs]

There was a shift to recognize
the power of children.

They were the big consumers.

[light music]

- Advertisers responded
by inventing pester power.

- Dood-L-Oon you get me free.

- And me.

- Not only were we
showing the brand

to a child very early on

we were then using what's
now called loyalty marketing

so the respectable taste
they'd like to have the toy,

they'd like to play games
on the side of the pack.

All these things
are unfurled in Britain

and British kids, and I was
one of them, really loved it.

It was fun it was great.

Of course while
we were enjoying it

these brands were
embedded in our brains.

So even now all
those years later,

what's my favorite cereal?

It's Weetabix.

- Cereal is the only food
on the menu

at one London cafe owned
by Gary and Alan Keery.

So I went to find out

why it's still so appealing
to adults.

I don't think I have ever seen
so many cereals

[Ruth laughs] all in one place.

It's quite astounding isn't it?

I mean what is so special
about cereal?

- Well for us it was
when we were kids

it was the first thing
that we fell in love with.

We remember going
to the supermarket

and given that
choice once a week

to buy a cereal
that you had to eat

for the rest of the week.

And it was the biggest
responsibility you had.

So do you think that cereals

are really just
a childhood thing?

I think everything is all
about nostalgia these days.

People like to feel
like a kid again,

even though they're not.

- We always used
to in the mornings

like turn over the cereal box
and used to do like the little

puzzles on the back.

- Oh yeah.

- We had to pour out
the whole cereal get the toy.

- And nostalgia
certainly seems to pay.

The six top sellers
in the UK today

were all invented more
than 30 years ago.

Some ad campaigns
have barely changed

since the successes
of the 1950's.

And they're still as effective
now as they were back then.

- I don't know
I love Cocoa Puffs.

- Snap, Crackle, and Pop.

- Snap, Crackle, and Pop.
- Snap, Crackle, and Pop.

[girl with braids laughs]

- The cereal industry
has never stopped growing.

And in the UK it's now worth

around one point five seven
billion pounds.

[machinery whirring]

[upbeat music]

- At the factory,
the final stage

of our Crunchy Nut production
line is the distribution area.

Nearly six-and-a-half hours

since the start of
their journey here

my corn flakes are boxed up

and traveling just under
three kilometers from packing.

And over the sky bridge
to the warehouse.

Now urgent orders
for UK supermarkets

are dispatched straight away.

While cereal destined for
Europe and the Middle East

is stored awaiting shipping.

The warehouse supervisor
is Jeff Bolton.

How many boxes you holding
in here do you know?

- About quarter of a million.

About 10 percent
of what we produce.

- So the ones that go to our
UK shops they don't sit around.

- No.

- No they go straight
out the door.

- Straight onto trucks. -
They're straight out the door.

This scale is unbelievable.

[upbeat music]

Every box of Crunchy Nut
cartons has been given a bar
code

so it can be scanned
into the system

before getting some top
to toe plastic protection.

[Gregg laughs] Yay!

- This is the wrapping machine.

All those Crunchy Nut cartons

is going to get wrapped
to stabilization.

- We all need those
for our suitcase

when we go on holiday.

- It's gonna come forward
it's gonna get labeled.

- Yeah you I'm not standing--

- No you're not gonna
get labeled

but I'd watch your back 'cause
of the vehicle coming for ya.

- What's happening?

I don't feel safe anymore
what's happening?

- There's gonna be a vehicle
coming to collect this.

- 22 sophisticated robot
shuttles do all the lifting.

Eight white ones
collect the boxes

and take them to the loading
bay or hand them to the 14 red
ones

which shelf them
ready for dispatch.

I mean how do they work?

Top of the vehicle we've
got a laser spinning round

it's got a computer
inside the truck,

we've got some computer
in the control room

and that's where it's getting
this position from.

So it always find
their own position.

- It also knows
where to take it?

- It knows where it's going
to, where it's picking,

what it's doing.

All automated,
programmed by buffings.

- And do the white ones
hand over to the red ones?

- At the end of the conveyor
the red one's will pick 'em up.

And the red ones look
after the warehousing?

- The red ones look after
the warehousing the storage.

- Do they ever won you
over a game of cricket?

- Nope.
- They won't mix.

- They won't mix.
- They won't mix.

[Gregg laughs]

Do you know what?

I used to see
sci-fi films about this

when I was a little kid.

- [Jeff laughs]
Think so did I.

- The computer is capable

of simultaneously tracking
all 25,000 cartons

heading for Europe and beyond.

How many humans are there here?

- Well I have three
operators and one craftsman

looking after the whole process
in here.

- Four people
and a team of robots?

- Four people, team of robots.

- That is unbelievable,
that is remarkable.

Million boxes of cereal a day.

Wow. Wow.

For the past six hours
and 40 minutes

I've followed corn kernels

through a hugely ambitious
mega machine process.

They've been cooked,
squashed and stretched,

toasted, and covered
in honey and nuts.

That's it that's the last
pallet

[Gregg claps hands]
let's get this truck loaded.

Those Crunchy Nut corn flakes

could be delivered
to supermarkets

within 24 hours
of being raw corn.

Yorkshire and Humberside

are the biggest cereal
eaters in Britain.

But they'll also
be sent to Europe

and all over the world
as far away as Asia.

The scale of this production
is very impressive,

but what really amazes me

is the lengths
these people go to,

they're taking natural product.

It's corn, honey, and nuts.

They bend them
and they shape them

and condition them
until they give us

the exact same cereal

every single time
bowl after bowl after bowl,

millions of times.

That is impressive.