All language subtitles for Modern.Marvels.S21E08.Food.Inventions.and.Innovations.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-BTN_track3_[eng]

- The United States is
and always has been

a melting pot of
cultures, customs, ideas,

and yes, food.

One of the things that
I love most about food

is that it can, and
always does evolve.

Coming up with new
inventions, new innovations,

that's an American tradition,

and we've been revolutionizing
the world of food

just like every other
part of our society

since our founding days.

In fact, there are a
lot of iconic foods

you probably associate
with other countries

that were actually invented
right here in the US of A,

like English muffins,
yeah, that's ours.

The Cuban sandwich, that's
an American innovation.

Even salad dressings
like Russian,

French, and ranch,
invented here too.

American innovations
also include

the first chocolate that
didn't melt in summer heat,

the first condensed
soup, and so much more.

Today we're getting a look
at American inventions

and innovations up close.

We'll go behind the curtain
at world famous Dippin' Dots

where we'll see how a
process originally created

for feeding cattle
gave us a brilliant

re-invention of ice cream.

Plus we'll see how Blue Apron
is changing the grocery game

by using innovative machines
on the assembly line.

You won't believe how
they're shipping millions

of specially designed packages

every month across the country.

And we'll see behind the curtain
at the jelly bean company

that blew up the
jelly bean world

by figuring out how
to pack hundreds

of crazy new flavors into
the center of their beans.

This is "Modern Marvels,
Inventions and Innovations."

[upbeat music]

What is innovation?

To me, it's that spirit of
asking "Is there a better way?

How can this improve?"

Maybe it's improving a process

or making something
more efficient,

or maybe it's creating
something completely new.

The biggest and most
beloved innovations

have changed the
world as we know it,

like the light bulb, the
automobile, and the supermarket

[upbeat music]

Today, I'm at one company that
is reinventing the grocery

process that had been in
place for a hundred years.

From the idea of
the company itself

to the processes and
machinery they've implemented,

the whole thing is one big
innovation, Blue Apron.

Founded in 2012, Blue
Apron is one of the leaders

in this $5 billion
meal kit industry,

doing almost half
a billion dollars

in revenue last year alone.

I'm currently inside
their 495,000 square foot

custom built,
state-of-the-art facility.

And it is very big, bigger
than a New York City block.

And today we're
going to find out

how they take 125
truckloads of ingredients,

portion them, organize
them, and pack and ship

hundreds of thousands of
meals every single week.

Grocery stores are responsible
for about 43 billion

pounds of food waste in the US.

That waste costs you money.

Blue Apron's developed a
host of innovative approaches

to getting food to table
that minimize waste

and maximize efficiency,
and that saves you money.

At the same time,

it's setting new standards
for the industry.

Their innovations, including
some of the most cutting edge

machinery I have ever seen,

are changing our entire
relationship with food,

how we cook it, how we package
it, and how we shop for it.

And I want to figure
out how they do it.

Each Blue Apron box contains
a recipe for a meal,

as well as a set of perfectly
portioned ingredients

to make the meal with.

The menu is constantly changing
to keep things interesting,

as well as focusing
on what's in season.

Before we see the process of
how they work their magic,

I want to see some of
the finished meals.

It starts with a meal prep box.

Meal prep is an old idea busy
Americans have long employed.

Cook on one day, but
prep all the meals

for your entire
hectic work week.

But Blue Apron is
re-inventing the whole idea

of meal prep with their new box.

You take one day to prep and
cook four different meals

and then reheat them
through the week.

So let's see what's for dinner.

John Adler, a former chef
in my hometown of Brooklyn,

is Blue Apron's VP of Culinary
and Physical Products.

It is his job to make sure

all of Blue Apron's
meals are delicious.

- So what you have here is
chicken, pork chorizo meatballs,

and then some mashed sweet
potatoes and broccoli.

I'm just curious with something
like the mashed potatoes.

If you can tell what's different
about our mashed potatoes

then maybe most
mashed sweet potatoes.

- Okay, you got it.

Mm, I love the consistency of it

- But now I'm going to, I'm
going to name something for you

that you're going to say,
"nah, that's a dessert."

Mascarpone cheese.

- Mascarpone.

- Mascarpone is how you
get that creaminess.

What we do is we start to
think about what's a plus one?

What are different things that
we can add to the experience

where someone is
going to feel like

it was memorable and exciting?

- [Adam] Think about all
the different ingredients

that come in a Blue Apron box.

Meats like duck, chorizo,

produce like chickpeas
and bok choy,

not to mention sauces
and seasonings.

So does Blue Apron deliver
all those different foods

to your door in one box,
fresh and ready to cook?

Well, it's time
to meet Blue Apron

president and CEO
Linda to find out.

- Shall we go?

- [Adam] You lead, I follow.

- All right.

- [Adam] Let's do it. I'll
hold your apron strings.

See how it did that?
It's, oh forget it.

Because the menu is
constantly changing,

the machines and assembly
line have to be adaptable

to handling all the
different ingredients,

sauces, spices, basically
everything and anything

you can think to cook with.

Blue Apron has a
major challenge,

how to keep all these
different ingredients

with different
storage temperatures

fresh through their
entire process

and all the way
to your doorstep.

- So we have receiving
docks that actually bring in

all the produce, all
the protein, et cetera.

So we have a very specific
cold chain handling process

to make sure ingredients
stay at the right temperature

for that ingredient.

- Okay.

- So for example,
tomatoes should not be

as cold as say milk.

- You hear that?

Hey, you don't put your
tomatoes in the fridge?

- Never put your
tomatoes in the fridge.

- Come on, people,
it crystallizes.

How many trucks are going
to be coming in? I mean.

- You know, we can have
anywhere from 100 to 125 a week.

So we've got about
25 trucks coming in

per day just for receiving.

- And if I may, I just
want to show one thing,

that despite the fact that this
is meal kits you can order,

you're getting actual produce.

This isn't like a freeze-dried
reconstituted pepper.

And here is where Blue
Apron's innovative process

offers a big advantage over
a traditional grocery store.

- If anybody's bought
one of those peppers

in the grocery store, you
know how expensive they are.

- Yes.

the waste surrounding
the system.

So if a lot of those peppers
are going to get thrown out,

then each individual
pepper has to cost more.

We can give it to you at
a much better cost because

of the fact that we know
it's not going to be wasted.

[upbeat music]

- [Adam] Blue Apron's
approach is new,

but the idea of inventing new
ways to help busy families

get dinner on the table
has a long history.

One of the first
companies to do it

wasn't even aiming
for the dinner table.

They were aiming for a TV tray.

The year was 1953.

The company Swanson was already

a successful purveyor
of frozen poultry.

But that year they had
a whopping 260 tons

of frozen turkey left
over from Thanksgiving,

and faced a dilemma
and how to monetize

their expensive surplus.

Then a brilliant idea,
to carve up those birds

and add sides of stuffing
and sweet potatoes

and freeze all three in a
partitioned aluminum tray

that can be heated up at home.

Swanson had just invented an
American legend, the TV dinner.

And get this, some husbands
even wrote angry letters

to Swanson at the time,
miffed about losing

their fancy full-blown
home cooked meals,

but a TV dinner is
frozen and stays frozen

until you pick it up
at the supermarket.

A gourmet meal kit
with fresh ingredients

delivered right to your door,

that is a new
innovation entirely.

Think about an avocado.

You hand test them at the
supermarket to make sure

they're in that small
window of perfect ripeness.

How does Blue Apron
make sure the multitude

of avocados they send out
arrive at your doorstep

within that tiny window?

- Avocados has always been a
tricky ingredient for meal kits

because very hard to get
that perfect ripeness.

You know what's even harder,

having it stored,
shipped to a customer,

and then having it be
the perfect ripeness

when it gets there.

how much pressure it takes
to penetrate into that fruit.

It's called a penetrometer.

So we're gonna penetrate
into the fruit.

- Are we allowed to say that?

This is a family show.

- We want the
ripeness of the fruit

to be between 10 and 15
pounds per square inch.

So I'm gonna place the avocado

with the cut side right
underneath our device.

Perfect.

- Avocado, it's almost
like a tightrope walk.

It's like the ripeness, you
need to nail that sweet spot.

You have to do that for
one component of one recipe

in one kit that may have
multiple recipes in it.

So this is a small sample of
the produce quality assurance.

We haven't even yet
entered the cold chain.

A cold chain is a variation
of the standard supply chain

where foods are transported
from producer to consumer

at a certain temperature to
maximize their freshness.

But at Blue Apron, they've
taken it to the next level.

Instead of the one size
fits all approach of either

refrigerate or don't
refrigerate, they've innovated

and have subdivided their
cold chain to include three

different temperature coolers
along with their freezer.

And because of their
innovative approach,

their ingredients are stored
at their own ideal temperature,

locking in freshness and
keeping the prices down.

Besides being
immensely complicated,

Blue Apron's cold chain
runs at an insane size.

This is like the biggest,
best pantry ever.

-[Adam] When it comes to
inventions and innovations,

American candy makers have
done their share and then some.

Over 100 years ago, New
Yorker Leo Hershfield

changed American childhood
when he invented a new candy

that combined a chocolaty taste

with a taffy consistency,
the Tootsie Roll.

Tootsie Roll's taffy base
gave them durability,

making them the
very first chocolate

that wouldn't melt
in summer heat.

In an era before
refrigerators and AC,

that was a very big deal.

Tootsie Rolls were also the
first single serving candy

to be individually wrapped
and sold for one cent.

For the first time,
even the poorest kids

could pick up a penny
candy at the corner store.

One of those poor
kids went on to become

a 20th century pop culture
type, Frank Sinatra.

Old Blue Eyes loved
Tootsie Rolls so much

he was reportedly
buried with some,

and the iconic treat
is still going strong

in the 21st century with
64 million Tootsie Rolls

rolling off the line
every single day.

Here at Blue Apron, they
have completely refashioned

the traditional assembly line

with innovative concepts
like the cold chain,

which starts right here
in this enormous room

at their flagship
New Jersey facility.

This is like the biggest,
best pantry ever.

- [Mike] Absolutely, this is
our cooler number one.

- [Adam] Okay, peppers,
eggplant, tomato.

This is the right
climate for them?

- Absolutely.

- You'll have three,
four meals in a box,

but again, you don't
know if the customer

is going to cook
them right away,

what order they're
going to cook them in.

So they have to be hardy enough
for a whole week, correct?

- Yep, and by keeping them
at their perfect temperature,

you know, that 45
to 55 degree range,

- [Adam] Right.

we're going to extend
that shelf life.

- Absolutely.

Blue Apron has four different
cooler storage spaces

all designed to keep
every ingredient

within its ideal
temperature range.

[upbeat music]

Back in the '80s, a
microbiologist named Kirk Jones

came up with a food innovation

that also involved
cold temperatures,

but he was thinking
just a smidge colder,

negative 320 degrees.

Dippin' Dots revolutionized
the idea of ice cream

when they burst out
the scene in 1988.

Jones was working at a company
that used liquid nitrogen

to freeze yogurt into
feed pellets for cattle

when he had a brilliant idea.

What if you applied the
same technique to ice cream?

His revolutionary concept
created a brand new product,

super dense, ultra creamy, tiny
little spheres of ice cream,

and every Dippin' Dot
you have ever tasted

was made right here
in Paducah, Kentucky.

- We get about 2.8 million
pounds of cream per year,

2.8 million pounds of
skim milk per year.

We get liquid sugar
and corn syrup,

and all that goes into
the process of making

three and a half million gallons
of Dippin' Dots per year.

- [Adam] That equals 87 million
servings of Dippin' Dots,

or 174 billion actual
dots, each one of which

begins its life right
here in a batch tank.

At this stage, the mix is just
like any other ice cream mix.

- Once our mix is pasteurized,

it'll go into one of
these flavor vats.

Today we're making
birthday cake.

There's a blue, a white,
a pink, and a teal.

Each different color goes
into a different vat.

We keep those colors separated

over into our
cryogenic pelletizers.

- [Adam] Here is we're
Dippin' Dots diverges

from every ice cream
maker that came before it.

Instead of using
a regular freezer

to freeze their ice cream mix,

they use liquid nitrogen, a
process called cryogenics.

And no, I don't mean freezing
people when they die.

For the record, that's cryonics.

That's the subject of a
very, very different show.

- Liquid nitrogen is
so incredibly cold,

320 degrees
Fahrenheit below zero.

And because of that,
it can freeze food,

especially ice
cream in an instant,

which is such an advantage
because it can result in

really, really, really
small ice crystals

so that you don't detect
them by the tongue,

which is why Dippin'
Dots have become

really popular over the years.

You're eating
spheres of ice cream

instead of a scoop of ice cream.

- [Adam] And this is
where the magic happens.

Droplets of the mix fall
directly into liquid nitrogen,

which at a chilly 320
degrees below zero,

freezes the dots with much
smaller ice molecules

than conventional ice cream.

This gives Dippin' Dots

their trademark
smooth creamy texture.

The dots also look
very different.

They are tiny, smooth
individual spheres,

as opposed to traditional ice
cream, which is an emulsion.

The dots are then collected
at the bottom of the processor

and taken onto packaging.

- Each bag holds one
gallon of ice cream.

There's roughly 25 servings
in a gallon of ice cream.

Each serving has
about 2,000 dots.

She's filling each
bag individually.

From there, he's taking the bags

and running it through a sealer.

On the other side
of the band sealer

is our quality assurance person,

and she's checking the
color, make sure the blend

and the proportion is right.

They're packaging six
of those bags to a case.

- [Adam] And Dippin'
Dots have to be stored

in a freezer at
negative 45 degrees.

That is far colder
than what's used

for conventional ice cream.

- This is all the different
ice cream that we're storing.

Each row is a different flavor.

So all the different
SKUs that we handle

are in this freezer.

- [Adam] The Dippin'
Dots stay fresh here

until they're ready to
be shipped to kiosks

in all 50 States by the 11
countries around the world.

Some now classic candies
like the Tootsie Roll

burst on the scene is
brand new inventions.

Others like the jelly
bean evolved over time.

Jelly beans are a hybrid of
two much older confections.

They have the chewy
center of Turkish delight

combined with the shell
of Jordan almonds.

The term jelly bean
first appears in 1861

when Boston candy
maker William Schrafft

encouraged customers
to send his jelly beans

to Union soldiers
during the Civil War.

With their egg-like shape,
jelly beans soon became a staple

of Easter baskets everywhere,

but they didn't change
much until a candy company

called Jelly Belly
came up with the idea

of a gourmet jelly
bean in the 1960s.

At the time, jelly beans
only came in simple flavors

like lemon and licorice,

and those flavors were only
added to the shell of the bean.

Jelly Belly's big innovation

was to pack the
center of a jelly bean

with a huge variety of new
and interesting flavors.

- So the mini gourmet jelly
bean that we made at that time

was the precursor
to Jelly Belly.

And in 1976, we added
in these peanut butter

and coconut flakes and
coffee and juices and purées.

- [Adam] By using these
flakes, juices and purées,

Jelly Belly is able
to pack big flavor

into these tiny beans.

And once again innovated a
candy that had predominantly

remained unchanged
for over 100 years.

And their revolutionary
flavors built Jelly Belly

into the candy
titan it is today,

beloved by everyone from
preschoolers to presidents.

- We sent three and a half tons
of candy to the inauguration

for President Reagan in
red, white and blue colors,

which we actually had
to come out with blue

because we hadn't made
a blueberry bean yet,

which has been a top
selling flavor ever since.

[relaxed music]

- Today, the Jelly Belly
factory in Fairfield, California

cranks out an astonishing
20 million jelly beans

every single day.

- So here at Jelly Belly,
we have over 150 flavors,

and they all have to start here

in our kitchen as
a cooked slurry.

So every year we
end up going through

about 20 million
pounds of sugar,

about six million
pounds of corn syrup.

So the factory is about
250,000 square feet.

It takes between
seven to 14 days

to make a Jelly Belly jelly
bean from beginning to end.

- [Adam] The first step is to
make the center of the bean.

- It's real cinnamon
oil that's going into

the center of a Jelly
Belly jelly bean.

So each kettle is going to
produce about 150,000 beans.

And we're going to make
about 20 million beans today.

Now the color is going in.

- [Adam] The hard work
starts to pay off downstairs

where the cinnamon slurry
drops into these molding trays

and first takes the
shape of a jelly bean.

- While the candy is
a hot liquid form,

we want to shape it to
the exact dimensions

that we want of
each piece of candy.

So we have over a
thousand beans per tray.

We do over 30 trays a minute.

- [Adam] And we
are talking about

some seriously
pampered jelly beans.

After resting overnight,
it's time to hit the spa

for a steam bath,
followed by sugar shower.

Yes, you heard me, right.

- So the beans go
through a steam bath

to get them a little moist

so that they can go
through a sugar shower.

They then go down
into this elevator,

up all the way down to
a robot to be stacked.

So after these
beans are stacked,

they will be resting overnight.

- [Adam] It's time to add
syrup, sugar, flavor, and color

to form the shell around
the center of the bean.

- Every run is a
bank of eight pans.

He's doing about 150,000
beans in each pan.

So he's going over
a million beans.

We're going to take those beans
now that they have a shell

and we're going to put
a confectioner's glaze

and they're going to
sparkle and shine.

- [Adam] But not every bean
will make it into a bag.

This screen separates Jelly
Bellies from belly flops.

- So when the bean
is the right size,

it goes through this screen
and works its way up.

This is a belly flop,

it's about five beans
all stuck together.

So a belly flop is
a Jelly Belly bean

that is not the correct
size, color, or shape.

- [Adam] Only flawless beans

get that famous
Jelly Belly logo.

- We started to print the
beans because we had imitators

that were not the
original Jelly Belly.

So this machine runs
a set of rollers

that will put that Jelly
Belly logo as it goes through.

So now we're going to go see
how we pack it into a bag.

[relaxed music]

This is probably my favorite
robot in the whole place.

These are our grab and go bags.

This is the best bag out there.

So this is the final stage.

We've made that bean, it's
now packed and ready to go.

So we make about 2,000
beans per second,

and about 15 billion
beans per year.

- [Adam] These Jelly
Bellies are finally ready

to head out into the world,

destined to create smiles
wherever they land.

Back at Blue Apron, it's time
to hit the factory floor,

but here they call
it the kitchen.

That's because unlike
a typical factory floor

which produces the same
product day in and day out,

on this factory floor,
just like a kitchen,

hundreds of different
foods are prepared

in a lineup that changes
every single day.

To do that, Blue Apron
have had to innovate.

Each individual machine had
to handle a wide variety

of foods that come
in a huge array

of different shapes,
sizes and texture.

What do we have here?

- [Linda] We have scallions
on the auto-bagger.

Last year alone, we sent out

23 million scallions
to customers.

- Which is insane.

but what's most amazing
is that tomorrow,

it could be pita
bread or radishes.

- Basically this machine
takes the bags that will hold

various ingredients and
they've been printed

with the information
about those ingredients,

turns it right side up and
then feeds it through this slot

where she can focus on
checking the scallions

and putting them in the bag.
- [Adam] Okay.

- And then when it
gets to the end,

it trims the top off
and seals the bag.

- Oh, that's where it seals it.

- [Linda] Exactly.

- [Adam] I just also would say
that she has not only

done quality control
on the scallions,

but to actually be
packing these things

while they're moving, it's
like hitting a moving target.

And tomorrow she will
have to QC and pack

a completely different item

like butter leaf
lettuce or chives.

That alone seems
pretty impressive.

Where to next?

- Well, there's a
lot more to see.

So let's move on.

- Lead on.

- All right.

- You're doing excellent work!

You're doing the
Lord's work right now.

-[Adam] Sometimes names
can be deceiving.

Just because a famous dish has
a particular place name in it

doesn't mean it
was invented there.

- The providence of some
of our favorite foods

that we think are from elsewhere

are actually
American inventions.

- [Adam] English muffins
were not created in England.

They were invented in New York
by baker Samuel Bath Thomas.

He debuted his toaster crumpets

with their beloved nooks
and crannies in 1880

and dubbed them English
muffins years later.

The Cuban sandwich must've
been born in Cuba, right?

Nope, Florida.

By 1900, the Cubano sandwich
was well established

as an inexpensive lunch
for Cuban laborers

in Florida's cigar factories.

Tampa and Miami have been
at odds over who should be

recognized as the true
creator of the Cuban sandwich,

with the Tampa city council
even introducing a resolution

with the exact way to make a
historic Tampa Cuban sandwich,

down to using precisely
three pickles.

But there is no mistaking
the home country

of this next food invention.

- Ranch dressing is so popular
and so ubiquitous to America

that in other parts of the
world, ranch flavored foods

are sometimes called
cool American.

- [Adam] Ranch is a
buttermilk based dressing

with dried herbs and spices.

And with its
versatile creamy tang,

it completely reinvented
the whole idea

of what a salad
dressing could be.

Before ranch came along,
traditional dressings

stayed pretty much where
they were designed to be,

on top of salad.

But from the beginning,
ranch was different.

It swiftly move far
beyond the salad bowl,

becoming a dip, a
sauce, a relish,

even a popular flavor of Doritos

- Ranch has become the
number one favorite dressing

for Americans, it has
become a dip for fried food.

It has become a
topping for pizza.

There's really nothing

- [Adam] Ranch got its start
in Alaska in the early 1950s

when a Nebraskan
named Steve Henson

started mixing up his own
buttermilk salad dressing

for his fellow oil workers.

Fresh herbs were hard to
come by, so instead he added

dried garlic, onion, and
herbs to spice it up.

The dressing was a hit and
Steve took his recipe with him

when he and his wife left
Alaska and bought a guest ranch

in the hills above
Santa Barbara.

They dubbed the
ranch Hidden Valley,

and here is where ranch dressing

started to venture
beyond the salad bowl.

With Henson serving it
on steaks,

potatoes, and vegetables.

In fact, guests loved Steve's
signature ranch dressing

so much they soon demanded
to have it at home.

But shipping a buttermilk-based
dressing was impractical,

so Steve created a spice packet
of just the dry ingredients

and mailed it to customers
all around the country

to mix with milk and mayonnaise.

Clorox later bought
Hidden Valley ranch

and finally developed a bottled
version in the early '80s.

Ranch is a distinctly
American invention,

and American
inventiveness and know-how

are also key to Blue
Apron's success.

They have built an assembly
line unlike any other on earth.

To accommodate their
constantly changing

roster of ingredients,
they have custom built

some of their machines.

What is this
magical contraption?

- So this is our cup filler.

So what you can see
is the ingredient

gets put into the machine,
in this case it's hot sauce.

And what it's doing
is it's actually

filling the cup directly.

And then you can see
there's a sheet of labels

that comes down on
top of the cups

and gets sealed with heat
to seal off the actual cup.

- So it's both label and lid.

- [Linda] Right.

- [Adam] Now remember,
this machine has to handle

a different
ingredient every day.

It's hot sauce today,

but tomorrow it
could be basil pesto.

So what innovation did
Blue Apron come up with

to make sure the allergens
from say a peanut sauce

aren't transferred to a
chimichurri the next day?

- This machine is self-cleaning.

So it can go through
its own cycle

over a period of like
six to eight hours,

where it will completely
sanitize and clean the machine

so there's no
transfer of allergens

or ingredients from one
serving of the next.

- And there's a guy over here

doing one of the coolest
damn things I've ever seen.

He's using the vacuum
created by those suction cups

to lift and stack 24
ramekins at a time.

This is the greatest thing
I think I've ever seen.

Tor those of you at home, in
case you were keeping count,

this machine fills a
ramekin, labels it, seals it,

weighs it, helps it
channel into being packed,

then provides an
amount of suction

for him to use this incredibly
cool tool to load it.

And then self cleans!

I would marry this machine.

-[Adam] Probably the most
ancient problem

when it comes to food

is simply this, how to
prevent it from spoiling.

In recent centuries,
two big innovations

have made it possible
to preserve food

far longer than ever before.

One was refrigeration,
and the other canning.

The idea of canning
food actually goes back

to the Napoleonic Wars,

when the French government
offered a prize to anyone

who could figure out
a way to preserve food

for their large armies.

A brewer named Nicolas
Appert finally won the prize

with a brand new technique.

He sealed food in an
air tight glass jar

and then dumped the
jar into boiling water.

Now both protected
from air and cooked,

the contents of the jar were
prevented from spoiling.

But if there is one name
that is almost synonymous

with canned foods in
the American mind today,

it's this one, Campbell's soup.

[upbeat music]

- Campbell's soup, it's iconic.

It's something that you
see in art, of course.

And it's something that you
see at the grocery store,

and it's something from
childhood that became kind of

a cultural staple
of American cuisine,

in a way that is very
uniquely American.

- [Adam] In the
late 19th century,

America's soup
makers had a problem.

Soups were inexpensive to make
but very expensive to ship.

Then in 1897, Campbell's
lead chemist John Dorrance

came up with an innovation
that would change

the canning industry as well
as the American pantry forever.

He developed a way to
remove the water from soup

while still retaining its
essential ingredients

and flavors.

Campbell's then sold it in a
smaller condensed soup can.

- Basically that made it
much less expensive to ship

and much less expensive
for the consumer.

And that's kind of how
it became very popular.

You would add the water to
the soup and heat it up.

Soup used to cost 30 cents a can

and it knocked the price
down to 10 cents a can,

and made it very
profitable for Campbell's.

- [Adam] And Campbell's
soup is still a staple

of the American kitchen today,

to the tune of over 1
billion cans sold every year.

Back at Blue Apron,

This amazing machine cranks
out 5,000 bottles an hour

or 100,000 to date.

- So what you're seeing
here are these little tiny

individual bottles that
get filled with everything

from vinegar, which is what
we're running right now,

Sherry vinegar,
- [Adam] Okay.

to soy sauce,
to Worcestershire sauce.

Anything that's sort of liquid
like a tablespoon or two

of an ingredient that you
might need for a recipe

comes in through
this bottling line.

- Isn't that the cutest
damn thing you've ever seen?

It's a mini milk jug.

So generally when you get one
of these in a Blue Apron box,

it's just the amount that you
need for the recipe, right?

- Exactly, 'cause we've
all had that experience

where you go to
the grocery store

and you buy a large bottle of

you know, Sherry
vinegar, for example.

And if you don't use Sherry
vinegar all the time.

- At all.

- Right.

- With this, you're getting
exactly what you need.

- [Adam] Check out all the tasks

this amazing machine performs.

It fills those tiny bottles
with exact right amount

of Sherry vinegar, then
it caps the bottles.

Then another mechanism
tests the caps to make sure

they are tight enough so
nothing leaks in the box,

and after that's done,
yet another mechanism

labels the bottles.

Just look at this
machine in total,

we're starting with this
beautiful little bottle.

This machine fills it,
caps it, tightens it,

tests it, labels it.

This is a pure
mechanized beauty.

- It's amazing, it's also
a lot of fun to watch.

- It is ridiculously
fun to watch.

[both laugh]

Just because things
are done a certain way

does not mean that
it's the best way.

From around the 1850s
to the early 1900s,

the grocery store
remained unchanged.

When you went to
a grocery store,

you would give your
order to a clerk

who would put it
together for you.

But Clarence Saunders thought
this led to wasted time

and to unnecessary expenses.

So in 1916, he opened his
own grocery store in Memphis,

Tennessee where he let
shoppers serve themselves.

He gave it an unusual name,
calling it Piggly Wiggly.

His reason for the
name remains a mystery,

but its success was not.

Saunders began to
issue franchises,

and soon other stores would
adopt this same practice

of letting the customer shop.

Once customers had the freedom
to choose their own groceries

brands began to compete for
consumers' attention and loyalty

and shopping in America
would forever be changed.

Blue Apron is also innovating
how Americans get their food.

We've seen receiving, QC,
all the amazing people

and machines that prep your
Blue Apron ingredients to a T.

Now it's time to hit
the packing line.

Another part of the
traditional factory process

that Blue Apron has
complete the re-imagined.

Unlike a traditional factory,
Blue Apron isn't making

just one product that then
goes into a box to be shipped.

Instead, each individual
Blue Apron box

has multiple meal kits in it,

each one fully customizable
by the customer.

So packing is a
multi-step process.

So each packing bay is
stocked with the components

for multiple recipes.

- Yeah, this bay may
have two recipes on it

with a few ingredients
from each of those recipes,

- [Adam] Okay.

and the rest of the
recipe gets completed

further down the line.

- [Adam] How far down
does it go alphabetically?

- [Linda] We
basically have up to

12 to 14 lines in this room.

- So 12 to 14 lines,
each cranking out

maybe three to five
different recipes each.

- Yeah.

- So this is kind of where all
the hard work that we've seen

in the loading dock,
the quality control,

this is where it
all comes together.

- Absolutely, this is
where the magic happens

and then the box goes
off to the customer

and hopefully it
makes their week.

- [Adam] Blue Apron is
reinventing the assembly line,

and sometimes re-invention
can be more impactful

than the original invention.

- [Announcer] The fruit
cocktail gelatin ring

like this neat little number.

- [Adam] For example,
by the early 1900s,

gelatin dessert mix had
already been around for years,

but it wasn't until a New
Yorker named Pearl Waite

began experimenting
with a mix of gelatin,

food coloring and sugar
that his wife dubbed jello

that the idea took off.

With the help of a
smart ad campaign

that focused on
women's magazines,

Jell-O sales skyrocketed
to $250,000

in only one year.

That's more than
$7 million today.

And for many people immigrating,

it was their first
taste of America,

as Jell-O's owners at the time,

the Genesee Pure Food
Company, gave out free samples

at Ellis Island in
an effort to convert

the arriving immigrants
to loyal customers

of the treat Jell-O
was advertising

as America's most
famous dessert.

Back at Blue Apron, there
is only one step left.

This is crazy.

How big is this room?

- It's huge.

This is the full
length of the building.

So you're really
seeing end to end here,

and the entire structure.

- So what, what is this room?

- So we were on the
pack line before,

and this track comes
from the pack line.

So basically the
boxes feed up here,

come through, and come
down and go around.

- [Adam] Uh-huh.

- And this is the sorting room.

So this is where everything
starts to be sorted

into pallets
- [Adam] Okay.

to be put on
different line hauls

to go to different
parts of the country.

- Oh, there it goes.

- [Linda] Yeah, there it goes.

- [Adam] This is crazy.

- And there's a thermal
liner in the box.

So the temperature is coldest
on the bottom of the box,

getting warmer up
on top of the box.

We've designed these
boxes to be able to sit

on someone's front
porch for 24 hours

and stay at temperature.

- Wow.

It gives our customers a full
day to bring it in their home,

- [Linda] Yup.

and a full week to
make these recipes

in the order they want.

That is awesome.

[upbeat music]

- [Adam] Oh cool, that's the
wrapping machine.

- [Linda] Yeah, isn't it great?

- [Adam] Oh, that is awesome.

God forgive me, I want
to ride on that so badly.

I tip my cap to the marvelous
inventors and innovators

out there who never let
the status quo stop them

in their search
for a better way.

Whether it's a candy
fit for a president,

a dessert that's
out of this world,

or maybe just a better way

to get fresh ingredients
out to the masses.

You have to appreciate all the
inspiration and perspiration

that go into elevating the
delicious world around us.

I know I do.

I don't know where we're headed,

but I can't wait
to see what's next.

Okay, beam me up.

I guess we're not there yet.

[upbeat music]