All language subtitles for Inside.the.Factory.S07E06.Tortilla.Chips.1080p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264_track3_[eng]

Whether you like to binge
on a boxset...

..Or watch the new films
on the big screen...

..We all love to watch
with some serious snacks.

In fact, we spend almost
£4 billion on them every year.

Ooh!

And one of our favourites are these,
tortilla chips.

CRUNCHES LOUDLY

Shh!

Here in the UK,
we eat seven packets of these
tiny triangles every second.

That's a whopping
235.4 million packets a year!

And the best place
to see how they're made?

The biggest tortilla chip
factory in Europe!

I'm Gregg Wallace.

Let me guess, you're boiling it up?

And I'm following the journey
tortilla chips take from kernels...

That is like a cement mixer.

..to cooking...

No, that can't be right.

It is.
That CAN'T be right.

..and the spicy coating.

Wow, that's crazy!

I'm Cherry Healey.

Recycling snack packets
is a tricky process.

So I'm going in search of the UK's
first plastic-free crisp packet.

Just like magic,
it's turned to film!

And I'll be learning how to perfect
a dip for my chips.

You've got the smooth,
delicious, sumptuous guacamole,

and then the fiery hot,
crispy tortilla!

That, my friend, is the beginning
of a good party.

Absolutely.
Cheers! Cheers!

And historian Ruth Goodman...

Those are technically called
poking sticks.

..is ironing out the link
between corn and our clothes.

So, here's to starch,
supporting fashion for 500 years.

This factory produces 730 tonnes
of tortilla chips every week!

And we're going to reveal how
they make each and every one.

Welcome to Inside The Factory.

This is the Doritos factory,
in Coventry.

It covers 21,000 square metres.

That is the size of
three football pitches.

They make more than 60,000 tonnes
of snacks every year here,

including six flavours
of tortilla chips.

But I'm hot on the trail
of their UK best-seller,

the 150g sharing bag
of Chilli Heatwave.

My spicy snack journey
begins at the intake area,

where I'm meeting process specialist
Richard Lynch.

Rich! Hi, Gregg,
how are you doing?

I'm good, I'm happy.
Lovely to meet you.

What is on there? Cos that looks
to be like an enormous bag

of mixed nuts.
It's 27 tonnes of yellow corn.

That's our main ingredient
for our tortilla chips.

Mate, I knew that tortillas
were made out of corn.

I just thought it would
be like a flour.

No. Only the whole kernels of corn,
because it gives the best quality.

Right, OK.
How much is on there?

27 tonnes.

Whoa.

Have you any idea how many
tortilla chips that would make?

Approximately 14 million
tortilla chips.

What, individual ones? Yes.

Where is it from? It's from Spain.

Why from Spain?
It's the warm weather in Spain.

It gives it the correct growth rate,

gets it to the right size
for what we want to use it for.

It also dries it to
the correct moisture in the field

before it's been harvested.

All right.
So, what's our first step?

To do a quality check on the corn
delivery. How do you do that?

So, we need to take a sample
of the corn

before we start the full delivery.

Can I get the sample? Yes.

Just want to put it under the chute.
Yep.

Whoa-oh!

Is that enough...?

What do you have to check it, then?

So, we put 100g onto here.

Whoa, look at that!

Like a human scale!

Why do you take a sample
and what are you looking for?

We're looking for
a perfect kernel of corn.

So, what we don't want is any
cracked or broken kernels of corn.

That's because it will affect the
quality, because it will uptake

the moisture much quicker
than a whole kernel of corn.

Moisture is one of the
key parameters that we control

all the way through
the following process

to make that quality tortilla chip.

So, you are going to cook these -
and because there's a lot

of water involved - if they're
cracked, they'll absorb

too much water too quickly?

That's correct.
Show me a cracked one, then.

So, there's one there.

Oh, is that one?
Yep, that's another one.

Right, OK.
Well, there's some in there.

What sort of ratio are
we looking for?

We want maximum 5%
of cracked and broken.

It's very much the same as if I put
big potatoes and small potatoes

in a pot, they're going to cook
at different times. Yeah.

You need to have uniform corn.

Yeah. Brilliant!

So, can we unload the lorry? Yeah.

Do you want to start the delivery?
Me? Yeah.

Stand back.

Just yank it?

Oh!

Whoa!

And the production of
my tortilla chips begins!

It'll take one hour and 30 minutes
for 27 tonnes of corn kernels

to be piped into one of the
factory's massive 190-tonne silos.

Now, I can't be alone in thinking,
when it comes to tortillas,

chips need dips -
and the traditional Mexican go-to

is guacamole. But how would you
go about making a ton of it?

Cherry has the answer.

I love dips, but...

Holy moley, guacamole
is hard to make!

Especially when you need
a LOT of it.

So, for some hot tips,
I'm heading to Delphi Foods -

one of the largest
dip manufacturers in Britain,

where I'm meeting co-owner
Stavros Styllis.

Stav, lovely to meet you.
Nice to meet you, Cherry.

Now, I know that we're making
guacamole today. That's right.

And I can see all sorts
of ingredients behind me,

but not an avocado in sight. No.

They're in the fridge, Cherry.

Lead the way. Let's go.

Stav's team makes up to
a tonne of guacamole a day,

and the key ingredient arrives
in frozen form.

Stav, look, you know more than me,

but that doesn't look
like an avocado.

It's frozen avocado pulp.

Oh.

I was expecting to see
cratefuls of these.

Why frozen avocado pulp?

Simply, we just wouldn't be able
to get fresh avocado,

that amount that we need. So, they
get imported from Mexico and Peru

and shelf life is limited -
probably turn into mush by the time

they get to us - so we have to
go down the frozen route.

It keeps this product fresh, green,

and gives it the shelf life
that it needs.

OK, that's a very elegant solution.

It is.

To make a mega batch
of 97 kilos of guacamole,

I need 55kg of avocado pulp -

which will gently defrost while
I get on with the other ingredients,

starting with coriander.

This is the happiest coriander
I have ever seen.

It's so crispy and vibrant.

It's delivered to us every day fresh
from Covent Garden Market.

Straight into the chopping machine
goes 1.5 kilos

of British-grown coriander.

Here we go. Oh, I can see the blade.
There it is.

The smell is amazing! Yes.

It's very fragrant.

For our traditional recipe, we're
using 3kg of roughly chopped onions,

1kg of jalapeno peppers
and 500g of red chillies.

Does guacamole originate
from Mexico?

It actually originates
all the way back to the Aztecs.

So, it's the oldest dip
in the world, maybe? Yep.

There's one in my fridge that
probably is the oldest dip in the
world that I need to throw out.

From the 14th century,
the Aztecs ruled an empire

across central Mexico for 200 years.

And the first English translation
of an Aztec recipe

for guacamole dates back to 1697.

Where does the word "guacamole"
come from? What does it mean?

Originally, it's from the Aztecs.
"Ahuacamolli".

What does that mean?

"Ahuaca" for avocado
and "molli" for sauce.

Avocado sauce! Avocado sauce.
Perfect.

But you say it's ahuacamolli.
Mm-hm.

I call it guacamole.

Well, the Spanish
actually changed that.

Once they took it back to Spain,
changed the name to guacamole.

OK, so, in a different accent,
changed ahuacamolli to guacamole.

Absolutely, yeah. Amazing!

History sorted - it's time to start
making our 650 pots of dip,

starting with
the defrosted avocados.

That looks really heavy. Yeah.
Can we get some help?

I think we need the muscles.
OK. Muscles!

Whack it in!

58 kilos are added to the mixer...

Are you sure we've got enough?

..followed by the
super fresh coriander...

Coriander. Star of the show.

..then sour cream, spices
and garlic puree.

When did avocados come to Britain?

1960s. There was major confusion,
cos people were thinking

it was some kind of a dessert.

I mean, there was a story about
a lady who turned it into

some kind of a stewed dessert
and served it with custard.

Ugh! So, not good, not good.

Not good! No.

They had to go down the route
of giving out leaflets

explaining about how
to use avocado pears.

I can't believe they come
with an instruction manual.

For my SAVOURY dip, we add onions,

jalapenos, red chillies, oil,

and then Stav's secret weapon...
lemon juice.

The lemon preserves the colour.

When you cut open an avocado,
it goes brown so fast. Mm-hm.

Lemon juice slows that down?

That's a brilliant tip.

Just like with apples,
enzymes in the flesh of avocados

react to oxygen in the air.

Citric acid in the lemon juice
acts as an antioxidant

to reduce this annoying
browning process.

Last but not least,
tomatoes complete
the guacamole party in a pot.

So, we're ready?
We are ready, absolutely.

OK.

It's blended for a short 45 seconds
to retain the texture.

What is Antonio doing? He's tipping,
and then setting it back,

and tipping and setting it back.

Just helping to move the product
so it gets an even blend.

Well, I guess he's doing
his own little salsa.

Woo!

100 kilograms of guacamole made -

and it's time to get
the party started.

Another reason to celebrate
is that avocados are packed with
healthy potassium.

So, there's no way I'm leaving
without a chip and dip session.

Why do tortilla chips go
so perfectly with guacamole?

You've got the heat from
the tortilla chips

and the coolness from
the guacamole itself.

You've got the smooth,
delicious, sumptuous guacamole,

and then the fiery hot,
crispy tortilla!

That, my friend,
is the beginning of a good party.

Absolutely.
Cheers! Cheers!

Mm!

Back at the factory, my 27 tonnes of
corn have been unloaded into silos,

before the kernels are piped into
the factory, where they're cleaned

and measured, ready for their
transformation to tortillas.

So, I'm heading to the
balmy batch cooking area.

Whoa!

Rich, this is tropical hot, mate.

Yeah. No, steamingly hot!

This is our cooking area, Gregg.

I know a bit about cooking,
so this should be easy.

This is where we start
the nixtamalization process.

The what?
Nixtamalization process.

What's nixtamalization?

It's an ancient process that was
developed thousands of years ago

in Central America, and we
follow that traditional method

to make our tortilla chips.

It's critical to make the correct
texture of our tortilla chips.

Mate, I've holidayed all over Mexico
and, let me tell you,

the ancient Mayans never, ever
had great big steel pots

over three floors like this,
and gauges.

We've moved on with technology to
recreate the same process, Gregg.

Let me guess. Let me guess,
you're boiling it up?

No, we don't boil it because boiling
it damages the kernels of corn.

We want to keep them intact.

So, what's happening in here, then?

So, we've got 800 kilos of corn,
1,000 litres of water,

and we add some lime to the process.

Hang on, hang on, hang on.
What lime?

So, we add lime to the process,

that's a key part
of the nixtamalization.

Lime juice? No.

So, this is an alkaline solution.

Why do you add that?

It breaks down the pericarp.

The pericarp is the tough
outer shell of the kernel

protecting the soft corn inside,

which contains protein
and the essential starch

that will help it absorb moisture
for the tortilla dough.

So, when the corn first came to
site, it was around 15% moisture.

We need to now increase the moisture
at this stage to around 40%.

We need that pericarp removed
to allow us to achieve that.

And you do that
with a lime solution?

Lime solution
and the cooking process.

The Mayans and Aztecs
made their lime solution

by heating up limestone
and ash in water.

Richard uses calcium hydroxide -
a food grade, odourless compound

which helps to break down the corn
during cooking.

So, then do you bring
the temperature up once
you've done that? Yeah.

So, we increase the temperature
up to around 90 degrees.

Just under boiling. Yeah.

So, how long it does the corn
stay in here

at that temperature with the lime?

Approximately two minutes.

And this is all about creating
that perfect dough that we need

to get the correct texture
for our tortilla chips.

Brilliant.

Once they're cooked, the kernels
are soaked and pumped into

one of 44 one-tonne soak tanks,

where the pericarp will continue
to break down.

Ha-ha!

How long does our corn have
to stay in one of these?

Around 15 hours
we have to soak the corn for,
to get the correct moisture.

What percentage moisture
are you looking for?

So, in the cooking process,
we're looking for around about
40% moisture.

When it gets to this stage,
we're looking for around about 50%.

What happens if it goes above
50% moisture?

It becomes too mushy, and we can't
make a dough out of it like that.

You won't be able make a tortilla
out of it? That's correct, yes.

Do you want to take a sample
with this, Gregg? Me?

Yeah. Oh, really?

Oh, right, OK, I can feel the corn.

Wahey!

Take a few kernels.

Well, they're definitely getting
soft and mushy.

Oh, look, here's the skin
coming off, I can see it.

Yeah.

So, that's the pericarp that's
coming off, it's dissolving.

It's getting broken down
really slowly.

And these are getting more
liquid in them? Yeah.

So, the kernels, you'll see that
they're actually increasing in size

and the moisture is increasing.

Listen, if you're going to be making
a dough for your tortilla,

you need starch. Yes.

And it's that starch that's
absorbing the moisture

within the actual soaking
and cooking process.

Hey! OK.

Richard, you are a star.
Thank you very much.

Cheers, Gregg. Thank you.

The starch in the corn helps
to create the right texture

for my tortilla dough and, because
we've only selected whole kernels,

none of it is being lost here,
even during a dip in the tub.

Now, this little thing is
actually one of the starchiest
vegetables around.

And Ruth has been finding out how
the unique properties of starch

have played a surprisingly
important role

in ironing out our history.

While starch is vital
to the production of our food,

it's also played a leading role
in the story of our clothes.

I have such strong memories from
childhood of fresh, crisp sheets.

And that crispness was achieved
through the use of starch.

I mean, if you're my generation,
you may have used something

like this to starch collars
and cuffs on shirts.

But the history of laundry starch
stretches back

to the Elizabethans of
the 16th century.

In houses like this at Harvington
Hall, servants would toil away

to process the starch
for linens and clothes.

But there was one garment
in particular

that they really wanted
to starch - the ruff.

These elaborate collars
were fashionable symbols

of wealth for men, women,

and the very uncomfortable
children who wore them.

Now, as a historian, I have in fact
starched a fair few ruffs myself.

It's a bit of an art form.

But I've always wanted to understand
how starch acts on flimsy fabrics

to transform them into
such beautiful,

stiff-as-a-board specimens.

So I've invited
Professor Mark Lorch -

Head of Chemistry at the University
of Hull - to explain the science.

These are amazing. I love ruffs.

I really love ruffs!

But, before we stiffen them,
we need to make our starch -

which the Elizabethans did using
home-grown plants and crops.

It was primarily wheat
they were using.

if you didn't want to do that,
there's bluebell bulbs.

There were lots available.
Of course. There's plenty of starch,

thinking about it,
locked up in the bulbs,

because that's the store of energy

and means that the flowers
can bloom again next year.

And, then, rice.
Which, believe it or not,

we were actually growing in Britain.
That's amazing.

Tudor servants extracted starch
by boiling and straining

these crops over an open fire
for days.

To speed things up, we're using rice
that has already been ground down.

Looks like a badly made gravy,
doesn't it?

The starch is released into
the water as a sticky scum,

a bit like when you
overcook rice at home.

We can see that going all milky.

Oh, yes, that's starting to change,
isn't it? Yep. Really quick.

That's the starch that's been
suspended in the water.

So, there we go.

The most elaborate ruffs for
the highest status Elizabethans

were made of a strip of linen
up to 50 metres long.

They required a lot of stamina
from the servants,

who laboured making starch
for at least three days,

before they took on the ruff itself.

And the full starching process,
from now on in,

we're talking about five hours.
OK..!

Going to be here for a while, then.

Before applying the starch,
the ruff is washed in soapy water.

As well as their size,
the pure whiteness of ruffs

reflected wealth by displaying
that the wearer could afford

to be super clean.

So, how exactly does this work,
then?

Well, there's loads of
actually really interesting
chemistry involved.

It might be best if I actually
draw this out for you.

Linens are made up of long,
thin molecules,

all linked together by masses
of weak hydrogen bonds,

and together they form quite
a strong network.

But these hydrogen bonds
can break apart,

and reform in the wrong place when
the fabric gets washed or creased.

The way starch helps, then,
is because starch is a very similar

molecule to the molecules in linen.

These can then form hydrogen bonds
with your linen

and holds it all in place.

So, it's like a rigid scaffold
being put on top?

Yeah, exactly. But it's all down
to these hydrogen bonds.

That's so interesting!
I had no idea.

The strengthening power of starch
gets to work when the fabric

is heated, and to do that we need
some Elizabethan laundry weapons.

What we need to now do is,
to form the shape.

So, you can just pinch,
push the iron in, and lift.

OK, let's have a go.

But what's happening to
the chemistry of the starch?

What's going on here is,
those hydrogen bonds,

we're just breaking those
with the heat from the iron,

and then reforming them
in the shape of the iron.

So, as the pressure of the iron
heats the fabric,

the starch locks it all in place to
create the stiff shape of the ruffs.

How's that?
That's coming, isn't it?

Have a feel. Yeah, solid.

By the 1600s, the use of starch
meant that ruffs

could grow to astonishing
proportions.

In fact, they restricted the
movement of their wealthy wearers

so much that servants had to
perform most tasks for them.

And it's not that easy for us,
either,

on our more low-key
Elizabethan dinner date.

They're pretty uncomfortable, but
it certainly makes you sit upright.

It's really good for posture.
Yeah. Posture and etiquette.

Maybe we should toast the starch.

So, here's the starch,
supporting fashion for 500 years.

Back in Coventry, my corn has been
cooked and soaked for 15 hours

to soften the hard shell and pump up
the kernel to 50% moisture.

So, I'm heading to
the tumbler area...

..where my corn is getting in a spin
with research and development

specialist Dr Depesh Pankhania.

Gregg, that's our washing tumbler.

That is like a cement mixer!

How much corn going through
this thing?

So, currently, we've got
1,800kg per hour.

There's 14 jets spraying water
constantly at 70 psi, roughly,

and that's washing the corn,
and also helping to get rid of

that last bit of pericarp
that we've got there.

One of the last steps for
nixtamalization that we've got.

Can I touch it?
Yeah, go for it, Gregg.

That's still rock hard.
I know.

But if you compare that
to what the intake corn was,

and that was about 15% moisture.

Ah-ha-ha!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that's really plumped up.

And it's also lost its pericarp,
so it's a lot more yellow.

Right, right. OK, all right.

Its pericarp coat's come off,
it's swollen up.

How much bigger is it?
So, it's about 25% bigger.

Right, I'm getting the hang
of this process.

I'm really enjoying this.

A yellow river of five million
kernels an hour

travel six metres along
a drain belt,

before dropping into a hopper.

Gregg, this is our mill.

So, the mill, I'm guessing,
is crushing the corn kernels

and making them into, like,
a flour, a cornflour?

No. Let me show you,
first of all, Gregg.

Give us your hand.

Oh.

Oh.

That's like a...
like a paste. Correct.

So, this is what we're doing.
We're trying to make a dough...

Hang on a minute.

If I was going to make
a dough at home,

it would be some flour
and some water.

Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Right...

You've already made the dough.
Correct.

Hang on a minute, I'm amazed.

I thought you had to make
a dry flour. No.

What we've done now is,
we've crushed this corn here

in our two mill stones.

Basically, the two stones
that weigh about 25kg.

And we've crushed it into
making a dough to give us

the authentic tortilla chip.

But wouldn't the ancient Mayans
have originally crushed

this into a flour? No.

So, the idea is that we want
to make something called masa,

and this is what we call masa.

Masa? Yeah.

So, it's Spanish for "dough".

Masa. So, in the late 1960s,
this landed on the moon?

Not Nasa. Masa, with an M.

This can't be traditional, is it?
Yes, it is.

Well, this is how they've been doing
it for thousands of years, Gregg.

That is unbelievable.

That is just incredible.

But you have got to get the mix and
the soaking and the lime solution

absolutely right, haven't you?
Exactly.

And that's why it's so critical.

Otherwise, you would never
get this dough. No.

You know, that's amazing.

So, this is the final step
of nixtamalization.

No wonder you were so concerned
about how much moisture was in it.

Exactly. You're actually going
to make proper tortillas.

Exactly.

This is amazing!

Job's a good one.

It takes just 60 seconds
for my freshly milled masa

to be pumped through a system
of pressurised pipes

to the sheeting machine.

So, we've got the masa that's
coming through the pipe

and going through what we call
the fish tails.

The fish... Yeah, I can see why
they're called fish tails.

The dough seems to be coming
out of there quite slowly,

although it is thick. Correct.

The fish tail distributors
drop an even layer of masa

across the length of two rollers.

Corn is getting pushed onto
that front roller,

and underneath there
you've got your cut-off,

which is just like this.

And we've got a wire that's
going across, which is basically

like a cheese wire,
that's taking off the chips.

Otherwise, the dough will just
circle around that front roller.

The two top rollers are just to make
the fat dough really, really thin?

Correct.

This then sits underneath it
and cuts it into shapes? Exactly.

Then there's a wire on the
front roller that catches those

triangle shapes and puts them
on the conveyor belt,

otherwise, they go back
in the machine again?

Correct. Whoa!

Brilliant!

This incredible process
has been all about getting

the right moisture content
for the dough.

If the corn is too wet, the masa
would be too sticky for the machine.

And low moisture would make
it difficult to cut

into perfect tortilla triangles.

Why are they called tortillas?

So, they get it from the Spanish
"torta", which means cake.

Little cake? Yeah.

This machine cuts a staggering
11,700 triangles every minute,

before they speed off to
the next stage of production.

Snacks like tortillas
are a big hit at the cinema,

but the most popular movie treat
we munch on is popcorn.

So, how did this American import
become a British box office smash?

Cue Ruth.

Like Laurel and Hardy,
or Thelma and Louise,

cinema and popcorn are a double act,

and it's hard to imagine
one without the other.

But how did popcorn get
this starring role?

To find out, I'm taking
a trip to the flicks

with film historian
Dr Robert James...

Hi, Ruth. Hello, Robert!

..who, like me,
loves his cinema snacks.

Popcorn, please, sweet.
Salty for me, please. OK.

So, where exactly
does popcorn start?

Initially in America,
in the Midwest,

because it's where corn is grown.

The first machines to
pop corn kernels

were in Chicago in the 1890s.

It was sold by street vendors,
who often pitched up outside

of cinemas and would
sell it to cinemagoers

before they went in to watch a film.

At first, managers didn't
want snacks inside.

But when the economic disaster
of the Great Depression hit

in the 1930s, they needed a way
to entice customers

to part with their cash...

..so they started to sell goodies
inside the cinemas.

There's a great amount
of confectionery being sold

in cinemas at that time, because
they could make a lot of money.

But why is it then that
popcorn becomes king?

Mainly because of
the Second World War.

During the war, sugar was rationed.

Sugar must be distributed
as equitably as possible

for household and industrial uses.

Suddenly, American cinemas
couldn't get hold of the sweets

they'd become dependent on.

So the only thing that could make
money on, really, is popcorn.

The cheap and widely accessible
American corn exploded into cinemas,

and soldiered on through rationing
when other snacks failed.

But in 1940s Britain, most of us
had not even heard of popcorn.

So, how did it fly across the
Atlantic and pop up in our cinemas?

I've come to the Imperial War Museum
in Duxford...

Hello, Emily! Hello.

Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

..where curator Emily Charles
is going to fill me in.

What an amazing bunch of planes.
They are all American, yeah?

Yeah, that's right.

From 1942, after the United States
had entered the Second World War,

about half a million servicemen
were serving with

the United States Army Air Forces -

and that includes right here
at Duxford.

And what's that got to do
with popcorn?

Well, the arrival of the Americans
was a huge culture shock.

They seemed very glamorous and also
brought with them great luxuries,

and popcorn was one of those.

War flash.
Yanks occupy London.

But, of course,
it's a friendly invasion.

So, what are these, then?

These are popcorn balls.

Popcorn balls?

They're quite a popular American
confectionery and the sort of thing

that American servicemen would
have been sent from home.

Can I try this? Absolutely.
Is that all right?

Food is really important
for morale,

especially when you're
serving overseas.

I like the idea, too, of it
being, you know,

a home-made thing by your mum.

Now, that's really got to mean
a lot, hasn't it?

Yeah, it's really special.

And with the airmen
came American movies.

Most bases had a cinema.

Here at Duxford American Air Base,
there was a permanent cinema.

What sort of films were
they showing on air bases?

So some of the most popular films
were animations.

The animations were cutting edge
technology for the time.

They wanted that escapism.

You don't want to be reminded
of your day job

when your day job involves putting
yourself in great danger.

And movie nights
weren't just for the troops.

Sometimes, the local population
were invited to come and join in.

And since the American airmen
were enjoying popcorn...

Exactly.

So, there was a lot of
cultural exchange

and, so, sharing popcorn was another
aspect to that relationship.

For three years, American airmen
shared their favourite treat

with us Brits - and our love
of cinema, and popcorn, stuck.

Who'd have thought that popcorn
could have such a place in history?

To save American cinemas
in the Great Depression,

then to cross the Atlantic
and comfort the troops
during World War II -

and all from a puffy little
bit of corn.

At the tortilla factory,

I'm 17 hours and two minutes
into production.

My corn has been made into masa
and cut into 14 million triangles.

Hot.

Now it's time for a change
of temperature.

Ah-ha-ha!

Oh, that is hot.

That is red hot.

So, Gregg, this is our
crusting oven. Crusting?

So, it's basically
a triple pass oven.

So, the chips are coming off those
conveyors, going through this oven,

and they're going past three times
at three different temperatures.

What we've got is the top oven,
which is your infrared,

at about 400 degrees.

And what that's doing is trying
to really get a hard crust

on top of your chip.

And then you've got the second pass
of the oven,

which is about 370 degrees.

The second oven creates the crust
on the bottom of the chip.

And the third is set to 250 degrees.

That's equivalent to your
conventional oven at home,

and that's basically trying to
evenly distribute that moisture

across that tortilla chip.

The moisture inside will help
to create those blisters,

which is basically a part of
our authentic tortilla chip.

How long is each chip
staying in there?

17 seconds.

No, that can't be right.

It is. That can't be right!

That goes through three
separate ovens in 17 seconds?

How many individual chips
are coming out of here?

So, it's about 10,000 chips
every minute.

Extraordinary.

Despite the heat of three ovens,

the moisture content has only been
reduced by 10%.

So, if you take a chip...

..what you'll feel is the hard crust
on the outside.

Well, it's crusty,
but it's really bendy. Exactly.

If you rub it between
your two fingers,

you've still got some moisture,

and that's the 40% that we still
want to keep within that chip.

So, onward and upwards.

I'm following my baked but bendy
chips as they trundle along

12 metres of conveyors...

..to quality manager Jyoti Saita,

who's putting the crisp
into my tortillas.

Hello.

Hello, Gregg.

This is now the final stage
of cooking.

The first step as soon as
the chips enter the fryer

is what we call a free fry zone.

The chips are let loose to be fried.

The oil - a blend of corn,
sunflower and rapeseed oils -

is heated to 180 degrees,

and the chips free fry
for just five seconds.

The next step is a drum.

We call it clump buster.

The drum basically keeps
the chips separated

so they don't stick together
in the fryer.

The third step in the fryer
is four large paddles

which flip the chips
in and out of the oil.

Inside the fryer, the chips flow
with the oil along the pan,

and are turned by the "clump
busting" drum and rotating paddles.

As they cook, the trapped moisture
turns to steam,

which raises the surface
of the dough.

The steam is what actually forms
the blisters, or the bubbles.

The blisters, or the bubbles,
are really, really important

to form the texture, and that's
what gives us the crunchy texture.

You must... Right, this is why
you want this moisture, right?

Absolutely.

You want the steam to come up
and bubble up the surface.

Yeah.

No wonder... Every step of the way,
everything is moisture,

moisture, moisture - and it's
making you your bubbly top.

That's right.

Is all the moisture now
out of this chip?

We try and maintain now
to around 1% of moisture.

So, it's never completely gone?
That's right.

How long does all of this take?

Just 60 seconds, Gregg.

60? 60.

Three stages in one minute?

About 60 seconds, absolutely.

Am I allowed to taste these?
Absolutely.

We can take some samples in here...

Wow!

..and you can try them now.

Well, I just wanted to see
the blistering,

and you can clearly see it.

It gives it, like, a surface,
like the surface of the moon.

You can see the little
raised surfaces.

We keep the blisters
less than seven to eight.

If it's too many blisters,
it absorbs too much oil

and it loses the crunch,
and we don't want that.

Well, they're crispy. May I?

That's what creates the crunch.

They're lovely and crunchy,
they've got a mild corn taste.

But they need flavour.

Even if it's only salt,
they need flavour. Absolutely.

That's our next step, Gregg.
Oh, is it?

I'll show you how
we flavour our chips.

Yeah, come on, then.
Put that down. Let's go.

I'm taking another one,
but just for professional interest.

And while I munch on
a perfectly crispy chip,

thousands of others trundle along
to the next destination - seasoning.

Of course, tortilla chips come in
a huge variety of flavours.

Mine will be chilli.

And this spicy little plant
has become very popular

in all sorts of dishes
here in the UK.

But how much heat can Cherry handle?

As a nation,
we're crazy for chillies -

eating a whopping 230 million
of them every year.

Most are grown in Morocco,
Spain, Egypt and Kenya.

But if you thought that chillies
only grow in hot countries,

think again!

Because I'm in Bedfordshire.

This is the UK's
largest chilli farm,

where they grow up to one million
fresh chillies a week.

Salvatore Genovese is in charge
of this ten-acre indoor chilli crop.

Let's go for a ride, come on.

What an amazing place!

This is a really impressive
greenhouse, it looks very high-tech.

Why do you have all
this amazing kit?

There's lots of reasons, but
I think one of the key ones is

we try to keep the heat, the
strength of the chilli, consistent.

So, if it gets really hot in here,
the plant gets really,

really frustrated and angry.

Too much variation in temperature
makes the plant stressed,

which over-intensifies the heat
of the chillies as they grow.

To regulate it, Salvatore uses
huge electronic thermal screens

to block intense sun in the summer

and seal warmth inside
during the winter.

So, you can decide what
the weather's like in here

at the touch of a button?

Really, if I get it right,
I can double the yield.

But, then again, if I get it wrong,

I can actually kill the crop
at the same time.

Once ripe, the chillies
are all picked by hand.

Is there a trick
to picking a chilli?

There's a natural
little break point,

and it just snaps off like that.

It's a twist?
It's more of a snap.

Is that a first one?
Well done.

When's the best time
to pick a chilli?

We start harvesting around April
and we'll go through to November.

How often do you harvest?

I really want to pick the same plant
at least once a week, twice a week.

Once a week? Although, sometimes,
there's just billions.

It's just red everywhere, and you
just can't get around fast enough.

The plants are fed nutrients
via a drip,

guaranteeing a whopping crop
of up to 25 tonnes every week.

Salvatore grows more than
20 varieties of chilli,

all with different levels of heat.

So, he's going to give me a lesson
on how to rank them -

according to a system
called the Scoville scale,

which measures
the pungency of peppers,

starting at zero
for a mild salad pepper.

What do we have here?

A selection of British chillies.

The most famous classic
is your jalapeno.

On the Scoville scale,
how hot is a jalapeno?

That's one of the mildest ones,
that's around 5,000.

It sounds like a lot, but 5,000
Scoville heat units is pretty mild.

The scale climbs a lot higher
than that.

Go a little bit hotter - serenade.

Great chilli, 20,000
on the Scoville scale.

Is it getting a bit more dramatic
around here? Well...

The habanero scotch bonnet.

Extremely incredible flavour.

The scorching Scotch bonnet
is a smoking hot 350,000

on the Scoville scale.

And we're not done yet.

What's under there?

We have officially the hottest
chilli in the world.

Whoa.

The Carolina Reaper.

It's small, but very angry looking.

So, on the Scoville scale,
how hot is the Carolina Reaper?

Around 1.8 million.

Very dangerous.

The Reaper can be dipped in curries
for a super-hot chilli kick.

And, with our growing taste
for heat,

they're now sold in supermarkets.

You've got 400 jalapenos here.

This little thing is equal
to all of those.

Oh, my goodness!

That tiny little chilli is the
equivalent to a crate of jalapenos?

Mm-hm.

Why are chillies spicy?

It's all to do with the capsaicin
that's inside the chilli.

When you eat a chilli,
your mouth starts to burn.

But it's not really burning.

Cos that capsaicin is fooling
your brain to think

your mouth is on fire,
where it really isn't.

I'll show you.
So, if you grab a chilli...

Contrary to popular belief,
it's not the seeds,

but the white pithy membrane
which packs the heat,

triggering the same nerve
receptors in our mouths

that tell us when food is hot
in temperature.

So, my brain thinks this
is really hot, as though

I was drinking
a very hot cup of tea? Yeah.

So, what will my receptors
make of the Carolina Reaper?

OK, I've come all the way
to Bedfordshire,

I should probably try it.

It's quite a nice flavour. Mm-hm.

Don't try this at home.

Uh...! OK, I've got it.

Uh!

CHERRY COUGHS

It's hot... Milk?

Oh! Guzzle that.

Put hairs on my chest...!

You would not want to eat
one of those without knowing
about it, would you?

And that is why we have
the Scoville scale.

If you can't stand the heat,

I really would avoid
the Carolina Reaper.

But if you think a bit of spice
is nice, it's thanks to farms

like this that, when you bite
into one of these,

you don't get a nasty surprise.

Back at the factory - and 17 hours
and four minutes into production -

my tortillas have left the fryer
and joined a superhighway of chips,

heading to the flavour tumbler,
ready to be doused

in the factory's most popular
seasoning, Chilli Heatwave.

This is our seasoning hopper.

That aroma is extraordinary.

It's almost like a sweet pickle
and lots of pepper.

What is it?

It contains paprika extract,
garlic, onion and some salt.

How much of this do you go through?

So, for chilli seasoning,
we use about three tonnes per day.

Three tonnes a day?
Three tonnes a day.

Can I taste this?
Cos the aroma is really powerful.

Sure, Gregg. There's a sample
right behind you.

If you open, you can have a try.

What does that taste like?

Slightly sweet...

Slightly sweet. Very, very salty.

Sweet like a pepper...

..and a creeping heat of chilli.

That's Chilli Heatwave.

Around 90 kilos of chilli
seasoning is loaded into

a 2.5m spinning drum every hour.

And my chips,
still hot from the fryer,

are dropped in 100 at a time.

How long are the chips in the drum?

Just 50 seconds, Gregg.

It's all so, so quick.

So, how many are we watching
going past here?

About 1,000 kilos an hour.

And that will make 6,500 bags
of Chilli Heatwave.

Every one of my chips is coated
in 0.2 grams of spice

and, together, they travel along
a pocketed conveyor

to the largest room in
the factory - packing...

..where I'm meeting
Victoria Hodgson.

Victoria, hello. Hi, Gregg.

These look like a lot of fun.

Yeah, these are our
multihead weigh hoppers.

Multihead weigh hoppers?

Yeah. Right.

Yeah, got it, I got it. Go on.

So, the chips fall onto the central
scale, and they shuffle across

into the 14 weigh hoppers.

Each hopper weighs a handful of
chips, and when the bag below

calls to be filled, a computer, in
a millisecond, calculates how many

grams are in each hopper,
gets the best four hoppers

and puts it into the bag below.

How fast is this machine
filling bags?

70 bags a minute.

And how many of these machines
are running here?

In the whole factory, we have 100.

Doing roughly 70 bags a minute?
On average.

All day? All day, every day.

Wow!

That's crazy!

From the weighing hoppers,
the chips fall through a chute,

filling a bag with 150g
of tortillas.

A tiny blast of nitrogen
is added into the bag,

before it's pulled through
two hot jaws to create a seal

at the top and bottom.

Why nitrogen?

To keep them fresher and
to stop them going stale.

It's harmless, is it?
It must be. Absolutely harmless.

And if you didn't put them in there,
what would happen?

It would lose its smell,
it would lose its taste,

and it wouldn't be as fresh as when
it came out of the seasoning drum.

Cos it's more like a pillow -
I'm guessing here -

does that help it...? Absolutely.

It cushions the bag and keeps
all those triangles intact.

12 packets of my spicy tortillas
fill each box,

which then salsa along a network
of roller conveyors,

bound for dispatch.

These days, most factories
are trying to find ways

to make their packaging more
environmentally friendly.

Cherry's tracked down
a British invention

that could be a game changer.

Crisps and snacks take just
minutes to eat -

but their packets can stick
around for decades.

Lots of plastic waste ends up
in our oceans,

and old crisp packets like these
can sometimes be washed up

onto our beautiful British beaches.

Incredibly, some of them
are over 50 years old,

and they've hardly degraded at all.

In the UK, we chomp through
six billion packets a year -

but only a fraction of these
are recycled.

And that's largely because there's
a lot more to your average crisp bag

than meets the eye.

A crisp packet is actually made
from four very distinct layers.

Meet packaging scientist Mike Swain.

I've built a gigantic model
for you to have a look at.

This is the layers of the packaging
explained in big detail.

A packet's inner layer is
transparent food-safe plastic.

Layer two is aluminium,
just a few atoms thick,

that stops moisture and oxygen from
the air getting into the bag.

So, without this, what would
happen to the crisps?

The crisps would go stale and
they'd also lose their crispness.

You'd get a bag of soggys!
You certainly would.

Layer three is the print
for branding

and glue to hold the
layers together.

And the outside is also
transparent plastic

to make the bags strong.

How do they all work when
it comes to recycling?

Unfortunately, it's very difficult
and costly to separate these layers

once they've been put together.

In fact, it's cheaper to make
a new packet.

But hope is on the horizon.

So. I'm going in search of the UK's
first plastic-free crisp packet.

And the key to this British
innovation is a special film.

So, I've come to Carlisle
to meet Andy Sweetman

to find out how it's made.

Why have we stopped at
a big pile of cardboard?

Well, Cherry,
this is actually wood pulp.

So, that's come from trees,
and that's the key raw material

for what we're going to
make into film.

You must perform some kind of magic
to turn this into a crisp packet.

It is really quite magic.

OK, I need to see it
to believe it, Andy.

Let's go.

First, this sustainable wood pulp,
from South America,

is sent to the pulping room...

It's absolutely massive!

..where the bales are lined up,

ready for me to get the enormous
mulching machine started.

Do I have to press it
at the same time?

Roughly. OK.

Three, two, one!

Go! Go, wood pulp!

So, what we do is take those sheets

and break them down progressively
into cellulose.

This wood pulp is full of cellulose,
a strong fibre in the cell walls

of plants that gives them
their structure,

and which is also used
to make paper.

Once they're loaded, the bales
are shredded in the pulper

with water to start the
fragmentation of the cellulose.

It looks like a giant blender.

And that's essentially what it is.

We've added in an extra ingredient,
caustic soda,

and it's reacting with the wood pulp
to open up the chains of cellulose.

And that's critical, because
we need to regenerate them
into a different form.

In there, it basically
looks like porridge.

Oh, look at this!

We're trying to move from wood pulp
to transparent film.

We've got to break it down fully
so that we can then regenerate it,

and it will turn transparent.

After 24 hours, the raw cellulose
fibre has been broken down enough

to become a gloopy liquid
called viscose.

So, that's our cellulose
in liquid form.

So, it goes from porridge...

So, you add chemicals
to the porridge... Yep.

..to turn it into marmalade? Yep.

It comes through the pipe work
into this part of the machine.

And that's like two lips
very, very close together,

and as it goes through the lips
and into the bath,

it transforms into film.

What is in the bath?

So, this is a bath of dilute acid,

and that transforms it
into the film.

It's essentially transformed
the molecules of cellulose

and lined them up. So, although,
it's chemically identical

to paper, it turns transparent.

In an incredible reversal
of the first chemical reaction

that turned the fibrous cellulose
into liquid,

the acid bath regenerates it
to pure cellulose -

not back to fibre,
but in the form of a clear film.

Wahey!

Just like magic,
it's turned to film!

Last thing it needs is
a little bit of a wash,

so that we get it crystal clear.

It's beautiful.

So, it's a food-safe, solid film?

That's right.

It looks like plastic,
but it is not plastic.

That's some seriously
clever chemistry.

This biodegradable cellulose film
is sent off-site

to be coated with a microscopically
thin layer of aluminium...

..and printed with the
product details...

..before being loaded up
with crisps.

It looks exactly like plastic.

But, really,
it's a transparent paper.

It's made from cellulose,
not plastic.

Is this a UK first?

Yes, absolutely. This is
the first certified compostable,

certified plastic-free crisp bag.

So, for the first time in the UK,
you can put a crisp packet

like this in your compost to
biodegrade, in around 30 weeks,

which is great news for those
of us that love snacks

and great news for the planet.

After 17 hours and eight minutes,

my tortilla chips
have been seasoned,

sealed inside bags, and boxed,

before heading to
this crazy place...

..a room of robots juggling boxes
of different chip varieties,

including my Chilli Heatwave.

Wow!

Wow. Seriously, I mean, I've seen
stuff like this before,

but this is very, very impressive.

What's happening
and how fast are they doing it?

So, the computer scans the barcode
on each box and sends it

to the right robot.

So, the robot will pick up
15 boxes a minute

and put them on the correct pallet.

So, an average pallet has 60 boxes.

Wow. So, it will take four minutes
to complete the pallet.

Wow! And then it goes off down there
to be wrapped up, does it?

To be wrapped, labelled
and dispatched.

And how many pallets
are you doing in a day?

So, between the two,
that's 768 pallets.

768 pallets of tort...!

43,200 boxes.

That...

That is amazing.

Well, I'm glad Victoria has done
her homework.

The pallets are wrapped,
and my tortilla chips

are finally ready to hit the road.

Dispatch, right?

Welcome to dispatch.

And it's a massive dispatch,
as well!

Are these mine? They're yours.

Wahey!

Go on, sir.

Oh, look, I've seen these
every single step of the way.

Shall we send him off? Yeah.
Can I do it? You do it.

Go on, boss! Send her away.

I tell you what, it's been quite
experience, quite a journey.

This factory sends 50 truckloads
of tortilla chips

all over the UK every day.

Most are munched in London,
followed by central England.

I have to say,
being in this factory,

I have never seen so much corn
in my life -

almost 200 tonnes of the stuff
delivered here every day.

I've almost got yellow spots
in front of my eyes.

But what really amazes me is, even
at a big, massive modern factory

like this, the process they use to
make the dough for these crunchy

little fellas is ancient,
it's thousands of years old!

I am never going to look at a
tortilla chip in the same way again.