All language subtitles for Inside.The.Factory.S01E01.Bread.1080p.PMTP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

Here in Britain we
love our daily bread,

munching our way through 12
million loaves every single day.

Believe it or not, come August.

the green shoots in this field

will provide enough wheat

to make 300,000
loaves of bread.

[Cherry] From field to factory,

it's a non-stop processing
line, but how do they do it?

We've come to West Bromwich

to one of the biggest bakeries
in the country to find out.

[lively music]

[Gregg] I'm Gregg Wallace and

I've been given
exclusive access

to reveal the secrets behind
this epic production line.

Rolling it up like a cigar
and cutting it into four,

and that's the
professional secret?

That's the professional secret.

[Gregg] I'm going to follow the
entire process over 24 hours

to show you the
amazing technology

that goes into making the
perfect loaf every time.

That may be the most
incredible thing I've seen

since I got here.

[Cherry] I'm Cherry Healey

and I'll come face-to-face

with the mindboggling
machines...

I can feel it on my face.

...that are working
around the clock

to provide enough flour
to bake for a nation.

That is insane.

[Gregg] Along the way
Historian Ruth Goodman

will reveal the hidden killers

that used to lurk in our bread.

This place just gets
weirder and weirder.

You'll never look at a loaf
of bread the same way again.

This is the incredible story

of the factories
that feed Britain.

[lively music]

[Gregg] Allied Bakeries
in West Bromwich

is one of the largest bread
makers in the country.

Each week this one factory

produces 1.3 million muffins
and up to five million rolls.

But the heart of the factory

is the giant bread
production line

which bakes, bags
and dispatches

1.5 million loaves every week.

And tonight I'm gonna follow
every stage of that process

by helping them bake
the best selling white

and wholemeal mixed
loaf in Britain.

But it's not about
baking one of them;

it's about baking 140 of them
perfectly

every single minute.

Before I can get
anywhere near a mixer,

we need to get our
ingredients together,

starting with the flour.

420 tons of it stored
in these giant silos

trucked in from mills
across the country.

[Cherry] Every year over two
million hectares of wheat

are grown in the UK in a
land area the size of Wales.

Because of our climate wheat
can only be planted once a year

so the annual harvest in August
has to provide enough wheat

to feed the nation
for the year ahead.

It's kept in stores
around Britain

and then trucked
to mills like this,

the Coronet Mill in Manchester,

and this is where
your bread begins.

Right, let's see what's
inside this truck, ready?

Around 10 varieties of wheat

are grown for bread
making in the UK.

A mill will buy a selection
of them and mix them together.

For Manager, Steve Britton,

this is the key to
making the perfect flour.

How much of this comes
through your mill every day?

Well, we bring in up to
50 wheat vehicles a day.

About 6,000 tons a week.

- 6,000 tons a week?
- Huh-uh.

[upbeat music]

The wheat could have
been sitting in storage

for up to a year,
so before a truckload

is allowed anywhere
near the mill itself

a probe sucks up a sample and
sends it to the onsite lab.

The truck has to wait

while they test the
quality of the wheat

and check for any impurities.

Twenty minutes later,
they get the green light,

then the wheat is cleaned

before embarking on
a violent journey

through a six-mile
long network of pipes,

which race it from
silos to machinery

all over the 10 story mill

at speeds of up to
60 miles an hour.

[Steve] This is where we will
store that clean wheat

and it's basically filling
up these silos as we speak.

- I can hear it.
- Yeah it's in-

All going through these tubes.

Okay, well open the
door and have a look.

Oh wow!

Oh my goodness.

Coronet Mill combines
various types of wheat

to make over a hundred
different kinds of flour,

each for a specific product.

From doughnuts to pasties,
to bagels to cakes and bread.

But to unlock the flour
inside a kernel of wheat,

first you have to take
the whole thing apart.

[Steve] All wheat is
basically the same.

It's made up of three
constituent parts.

It's got the bran
layer on the outside.

It's got the white endosperm
and it's also got the germ.

[Cherry] In a wholemeal
bread the flour used

has combined all these elements

as they use the
whole of the grain.

But in a white flour
it's just the endosperm,

this white central
part they're after.

The wheat is soaked in water
and left for up to 24 hours

to loosen the outer shell.

Then it's ground
through steel rollers,

which shear open the kernels

and separate the bran
from the endosperm.

So this is after the first
time it's been ground.

[Steve] It is, so what I
need to do now

is separate it into
its constituent parts.

So I need to separate the
bran from the endosperm.

So what we do is we sieve it.

[jazzy music]

I can feel it on my face.

That's insane.

The Coronet Mill's
sifting floor

is a disconcerting maze
of seven giant sieves

that work 24 hours a day

processing more than a tanker
load of flour every hour.

[jazzy music]

The crushed wheat kernels

pass through
increasingly fine sieves,

which removes more and
more of the coarse material

releasing a small amount
of flour each time.

This coarse material is sent
on to yet more steel rollers

to be reground and the
process is repeated

again and again and again.

Until eventually.

- Flour.
- Flour.

Really soft and smooth flour.

Our finished flour is now ready
to be trucked to the bakery.

Flour dust is combustible,

and in a confined space can
create an explosive environment

where any electrical
spark could ignite it.

So the Mill has to take great
care while they're loading.

The truck has to be earthed
to prevent any static build up

while powerful air ventilators

prevent the dust from escaping.

How much flour is now
going through this funnel

into this truck?

This is a 28-ton delivery now.

And how many loaves of
bread will that produce?

[Steve] About 60,000 loaves.

[Cherry] 60,000 loaves of
bread from this one truck?

[Steve] Yeah.

And how many trucks of flour

do you send out of
your mill every day?

We're producing a tanker-load
of flour every hour.

- And is that 24 hours?
- Yes.

- That's a lot of toast.
- It is.

That is now on its way to
the bakery in West Bromwich

where in just 24 hours
the contents of that truck

will become the
bread on your table.

[machines whirring]

[Gregg] The flour supply is the
lifeblood of this bakery.

They rely on it arriving in
vast quantities every day

for everything they make.

And before I head
in to start baking,

I need to offload that flour
Cherry has been milling

and find out how exactly

you get 28 tons of white
powder out of a truck.

That's the first challenge
for Driver Tony Jarman.

- Can I help?
- You can, yeah.

I don't wanna appear stupid,

but flour is a
light dusty thing.

How do you get it out
of an enormous vat?

We pressurize the tank
using a land-based blower.

- You blow it out?
- Yeah, we blow it.

We pressurize the
tank and blow it out.

I came here to see
the flour unloaded

and now I feel like a fireman.

[machine whirring]

This is where the
non-stop process

of large-scale
bread making begins.

Hey-hey, it's trembling
through my arm.

It's incredible to think
that just 24 hours from now

this flour I'm
pumping off this truck

will be a loaf on a
supermarket shelf.

Where's this going?

It's going into the silos above.

[Gregg] This one bakery
takes in close to

1,000 tons of flour a week.

And they use white
and wholemeal flour

for their Kingsmill 50/50 loaf.

That's the loaf they're
making now, in fact every hour

they're making over eight
and a half thousand of them.

And just like baking at home,

the first step is getting
your ingredients together,

and here that's all
being done by computer

under the watchful eye of
General Manager John Jackson.

This is the fun bit, right?

This is the bit where we
start making the dough.

So what we have here
is the flour line

coming right from
the silos.

Here?

[John] There it is.

And it's delivering the flour

at about two kilos a second
into a holding bin here

ready to drop into the mixer
when the mixer calls for it.

[Gregg] This high-tech mixer

can automatically
call on ingredients

from all over the factory.

Right now flour's
being delivered

directly from the silos
outside,

while the nearby
ingredients store room

is also pumping in the
other dry ingredients

we'll need to make our loaf.

- We've got Kibble.
- Kibble?

- Kibble.
- What is Kibble?

Kibble is like wheat bran
that gives you texture.

Hang on a minute,
hang on a minute.

I make bread,
flour, yeast, salt.

We add it to give
it a bit of texture

particularly to our
wholemeal products.

Tell me about soya,
that surprises me.

Soya, soya, we add soya,
which enriches the process

and gives a brighter crumb.

- It makes the bread whiter?
- Yes it does, yeah.

- Is that right?
- That's right.

I'm really excited; I've
never used one of these.

That is immense.

Ready?

[Gregg] Despite all these
ingredients,

there's one star player at
the heart of bread making,

a living organism.

Is that your yeast?

Yeah that's our yeast.

That is creamed, fast
acting baker's yeast.

The yeast that I use
at home is a solid.

Yeah we have it in liquid form

so that we can bring
it in by tanker.

[Gregg] How many tankers
come in

to supply you
with liquid yeast?

- [John] About two a week.
- [Gregg] Two whole?

[John] Two full
tankers a week, yeah.

I'm amazed you go
through that much.

I had no idea.

This is the secret ingredient,
without this no bread ever.

[John] That's right.

How much do you love
this jar of liquid?

It's absolutely essential.

[Gregg] But what exactly
is yeast,

and why is it so
essential?

To find out I've come to
the Norfolk Countryside

to meet Scientist,
Doctor Ian Roberts.

So why am I out in the
middle of a forest?

This is a really good
place to find yeast.

It's a microscopic fungus

related to mushrooms
and toadstools,

and it's a living thing and
this is a living environment.

Where is the yeast?

It's everywhere,
it's all around us,

on leaves, branches,
soil, bark of oak trees

is a particularly
good place to find it.

And indeed it's on
us, on our skin.

You're not kidding me, are you?

No, it's everywhere.

[contemplative music]

[Gregg] Yeast's are some
of the most

successful organisms on earth.

These ancient fungi have been
with us for millions of years,

they live all around us
from the air we breathe

to the bark of this tree.

So how do you make tons
and tons of the stuff

when each organism
is microscopic?

I've come to the Lallemand
Factory in Suffolk,

one of the latest yeast
producers in the country

to find out.

There are six
massive fermenters

which are cultivating
yeast 24 hours a day.

Martin Perling is
Operations Director.

How much yeast is
in one of those?

In each one of those tanks

by the time we've
finished growing the yeast,

there'll be 30,000
kilograms of yeast.

Enough to ultimately bake
1.2 million loaves of bread.

And how much did you start with?

We start with .1 gram
from a test tube.

Hang on; hang on, how
long does that take?

That will take us 4 days.

[laughs] That's not possible.

The wonders of living organisms

are that they replicate
themselves

by doubling their numbers

every three hours in
the case of yeast.

And if you do the mathematics,
over the four days

that we have the yeast
in those fermenters,

they will increase
by 35 million times.

Mate, that is
the maddest thing.

[dramatic music]

One way they keep
the yeast happy

is by feeding them
vast amounts of sugar

through this complex
network of pipes.

As they grow and multiply,

the yeast cells get through
42 tons of sugar syrup

known as molasses
in just 16 hours.

Once the yeast has multiplied
enough to fill the tanks

it's dehydrated and then
compressed into bricks

ready for delivery.

That's a beautiful thing.

- It is.
- It's like a marble finish,

that's a really beautiful thing.

[Martin] And those are all
living organisms in there.

A living thing?

We also produce a dried
yeast for home baking.

[Gregg] These organisms
are so amazingly resilient,

they can even survive
being completely dried out.

That is dry and stable,
and in this form,

yeast will
keep for two years

whereas in that form it has a
shelf life of about 30 days.

This has got to be one of
the most adaptable organisms

the human race has ever found.

[Martin] It is and man
has learnt to adapt it

to his requirements.

Now that truck is about to
leave,

and that has got
enough yeast on it

to make over 600,000
loaves of bread.

600,000, but that's not
even a fifth of the bread

that we consume in
Great Britain every day.

Gobsmacking!

Back at the West Brom Bakery

yeast has now been pumped
into storage tanks.

[soft rock music]

And then, just three minutes
after the flour delivery,

it's all combined in the mixer.

We're almost ready to
start making bread.

But first I need to add one
final group of ingredients

known as conditioners.

Tell me what to do.

Grab yourself one of
these, take the lid off,

put the lid on the side.

[Gregg] A mix of vitamin C and
various enzymes and emulsifiers,

which along with
a high-speed mixer

allow them to bake
bread at a speed

impossible in your
kitchen at home.

At home now, I've added
the yeast to the flour,

I've now got cling
film over the bowl

and I'm leaving it to rise.

[Martin] If we were to use
the old method,

we would have bowls of dough
all round here waiting.

We use something called

the Chorleywood
bread-making process.

That was developed
in the early 1960s.

[Gregg] At the heart of this
Chorleywood process

is a special mixer which
uses controlled pressure

and emits energy
to precisely manage

the size of the air
bubbles in the dough.

Which means every loaf
is practically identical.

It also means that a process
that would take you 25 minutes

of mixing and kneading at home

can all be done here in
a fraction of that time.

So how long does it take to
mix the whole thing up then?

- Just three minutes.
- You're kidding.

For the actual mixing itself
it's just three minutes long.

Can I get in there
and have a look?

Yeah.

[Gregg] Every stage of
the process

has to be precisely
monitored,

including the temperature
of the dough ball

to ensure the yeast has the
perfect environment to grow.

[John] And we're looking for
28 degrees plus or minus one.

[Gregg] Too hot and the
dough would rise too quickly.

Too cold and they'd end
up with a dense flat loaf.

Now it looks like a bread
dough.

[John] That's is yeah, yeah.

[Gregg] How many of
these do you do a day?

- 20 an hour.
- 20 an hour?

And you get about
350 loaves to a mix.

[electronic music]

Is this the dough I've made?

Yeah, this is the
dough you've made

and we've cut it into
the right weight pieces

and this dough piece
now won't stop moving

for the next
three-and-a-half hours

till we actually
drop it in a bag.

I can't be the only
person in Britain

that finds this
very therapeutic,

watching enormous dough balls

just floating away
up into the horizon.

[calm music]

[John] Now what
we do next, Gregg,

we put it through a rounder

and shape it into dough piece

and once they've got
it into the right shape,

we need to let it relax so
that we can then mold it

and shape it before
we put it in the tin.

- -How long's it gotta relax?
- About 30 seconds.

Is that why you make the
conveyor belt so long?

[John] That's
exactly right, yeah.

It's like all the
energy and heat

that goes into a piece of beef,

it's like bringing
that out of the oven

and letting that rest.

- Exactly the same.
- The same process?

Yeah, it's the same process.

I'm getting quite attached
to this dough ball.

After they've relaxed
for 30 seconds,

the dough balls are almost
ready to be left to prove.

But first they go through
one surprising extra step.

You've got it rolled up
like a pancake.

[John] Yeah we roll
it up like a pancake.

[Gregg] Why would you do that?

[John] It's all about

developing the
structure of the dough,

and we cut it in four,

and turn the grain
through 90 degrees

to give the slice of
bread a stronger texture,

allowing you to butter
it without ripping

it all into holes.

Is that it, is that
my four separate bits?

That's the four separate pieces

that I've actually
molded together

in the proving and baking
process inside the tin.

I wouldn't notice this
would I, in a sliced loaf?

No because on a sliced loaf,

the slices will actually
cut through that

and you'll not see that.

Mate, this is nothing
like making bread at home,

let me tell you,
nothing like it.

What would happen if
we didn't roll it up,

didn't cut it into four,

and just put the dough
into a baking tin?

It would look exactly
the same, a square loaf.

However, it would be more
susceptible to ripping

if you actually buttered it.

I'll show you.

This is the loaf
we made earlier,

and we've four-pieced
it as you can see.

And this is one that we haven't,

that we made especially
for you today

so you could actually
see the difference.

And that's the standard 50/50?

That is, we make 40,000
of these every day,

and we don't make any of those.

And you reckon
it'll spread better.

I do.

[upbeat music]

Do you wanna bet on it?

- Spread betting?
- Spread betting, yes.

It does spread ridiculously
well, it does, right.

Swap 'em over.

- It's tearing.
- It's tearing here, yes.

[Gregg laughing]

That's mad.

That's nuts. Look at that.

Everything depends on you
rolling it up like a cigar

and cutting it into four and
that's the professional secret?

And that's the
professional secret.

For centuries bread has
been really important to us,

not only in Britain's
diet but in our culture.

- Hiya Ruth, how are you?
- Hello.

[Ruth] So, I've come to
meet Colin Lomax.

Lomax has a lifetime's
experience of making

bread by hand.

Always think about
using that part of my hand

and pushing it against the
table, you'll get some friction.

[Ruth] He's going to show me
how our love affair with bread

has risen through
the centuries,

starting off with
a medieval loaf.

It didn't look anything like
the modern white loaf did it?

No, that's so true.

Let's just have a
look at some rye bread,

and rye is what really
the poor people had to eat

when wheat was too
expensive to buy.

This is indeed
the sort of texture

that I would expect
from medieval bread.

Its quite dense; it's
not very springy is it?

No.

If you've got to live
on bread and water...

Which they did of
course didn't they?

- Which they did.
- Yeah.

Then this is about
as good as it gets

but boy you have to
chew it [laughs].

Workers' bread
was generally made

from whatever was
growing locally--

rye, barley and oats, which were
sometimes mixed with wheat.

This produced loaves in
various shades of brown.

If you were wealthy,
you could treat yourself

to a loaf of white bread.

But pre-industrial white
bread was quite different

from the sandwich loaves
which we know today.

You probably can't
see it from there,

but there are still flecks
of brown particles in there.

But it made good bread.

[Ruth] Good for the gentry
maybe, but not for the bakers.

The conditions in
bakeries were terrible,

and most of the bakers
had respiratory diseases.

As they were in amongst
the dust all the time.

That's right, they worked
terribly long hours,

and it really was kind
of back-breaking work.

[Ruth] After 25
minutes in the oven,

it's time to check on our
pre-industrial white loaf.

Look!

[Colin] All of our efforts.
Fantastic.

[Ruth] Bread was so
fundamental to society

that it became a symbol
for social division.

When they were baked
on the oven bottom

and you get this kind of dust,

then they used to
slice the bottom off,

and that was oven bottom and
the top bit was upper crust.

So the so-called rich people
had the upper crust bit,

and the other people
had the bottom.

Wow.

Now that does look
like white bread.

It's sort of creamy white
rather than white, white.

If you care to try a
little piece of it.

Huh-uh.

And it should almost
melt in your mouth;

it shouldn't be as
chewy and as dense,

and you can see yourself
eating that with a nice meal.

[Ruth] For the upper classes,

white bread was the
height of refinement

in every sense of the word.

It wasn't until after
the industrial revolution,

that it came within reach
of the ordinary worker.

In the mid-19th Century
cheap wheat

was imported from the
prairies of North America,

and it was milled
through steel rollers

creating a much finer product.

Can we have a little look at
what white bread had become

by the end of the
Victorian period?

[Colin] Okay, we'll just cut
through that, inside a lovely-

- Oh my goodness.
- Bright white loaf.

Let's go and have a
look at that old white.

And I think this is very
white in comparison to that.

[Colin] And essentially
you put one hand on there

and one hand on there,
and you can really feel-

Oh my goodness, there's
a huge difference.

One sinks right in, the
other one scarcely at all.

And our love affair with white
bread just goes on and on.

Throughout history and
through the checkouts,

the white loaf remains
the nation's favorite.

[Gregg] My loaf is only
7 minutes old

but already it's been mixed,
the dough balls have been cut

into the critically
important four pieces,

and now it's just a
short conveyor belt ride

to the prover.

[electronic music]

At home I'd put a little
bit of oil in the bowl,

and I'd try and find
somewhere dry and warm

like an airing cupboard.

That is just a giant
airing cupboard right?

[John] It's a giant
airing cupboard.

[Gregg] And how much bread
have you got in there?

[John] About 7,000
loaves at any one time.

[Gregg] And what do you, you
want it to double its size

in about an hour?

[John] At least double its
size in about an hour, yes.

I could do that
after a good lunch.

[John laughs]

[Gregg] Whether you're baking
tens of thousands

of loaves in a factory

or a single loaf in
your kitchen at home,

at this point the
science is the same.

The prove is all about
giving the live yeast

time to feed off the starch.

As it does, it produces
bubbles of carbon dioxide,

which is what will give
our loaf its structure.

Oh that's quite heavy, mate.

Right, so there.

[John] That's the
dough we've made

straight from the
mixer and four-pieced.

[Gregg] And there is
the proven dough,

more than doubled the size...

I'd say almost triple the size.

Yeah, that's right.

[Gregg] But it's not enough
just to create the bubbles,

the key is holding them
in place

and that's where the elastic
stretchy gluten comes in.

So the yeast is producing gas,

the gluten is holding
it all in?

[John] In like a big net,

and when all that
process has finished,

it creates like a
soft, springy texture.

So, the yeast is, like,
eating the sugar,

and then it's breaking
wind on an enormous scale,

and then the gluten's
trapping it all.

That's right.

That's the scientific way
of describing it, yes.

- I'm right, aren't I?
- You're right, yes.

[John] You have to put a lid on
the bread or on the tin.

[Gregg] Why?

[John] Well, when it goes
in the oven,

which is the next
stage after here,

the yeast does a
little bit of a jump

as it does it final proof,

and the lid stops
it going too big.

And it also helps us to
create that nice square loaf

to go in your toaster.

[Gregg] They thought
of everything.

And now, one hour
and 24 minutes

after the flour first arrived,
it's time to start baking.

I'm guessing by the heat
that this is the oven

and they're finally
gonna get baked.

How many loaves of bread
would you have in the oven

at any one time?

About three-and-a-half
thousand at any one time.

[Gregg] How does it travel
through an oven for 20 minutes?

[John] The oven's huge and it's
got a traveling chain

or a deck that actually moves
forward slowly all the time,

taking the tins with it.

[Gregg] The loaves are baked
at about 230 degrees,

just like you would at home,

but that's about
the only similarity.

The internal volume of
this oven

is about a thousand times
that of your home oven.

The loaves move
through continuously,

they have to avoid holding up

the rest of the production
line behind them.

It also means they
avoid any hot spots,

which could given
an uneven bake.

I can't believe the bread
still doesn't get to sit still.

[John] It never sits
still, we never stop.

[Gregg] From the moment
the ingredients

were combined in the mixer,

the yeast has been
feeding frantically

and creating those all
important gas bubbles.

But now its time is up.

The actual heat of the oven

then kills the yeast and
the yeast stops working.

[Gregg] And the heat of the
metal around the outside

is actually forming the
crust, it's scalding it.

Yeah it creates a sort
of caramelized surface

and you get the crust.

[Gregg] After 20 minutes
in the oven,

the lid comes off and my
perfect loaf is revealed.

[machines whirring]

But before it can
be sliced and bagged,

it has to take a ride

through one of the most
bizarre rooms I've ever seen.

This place just gets
weirder and weirder,

and I'm guessing
by the temperature,

this is some kind of fridge.

Yeah, this is our cooler

and this is the one bit of
the process we can't speed up.

[Gregg] Why do we
need to cool it down?

[John] We need to get the
bread below 30 degrees

so that we can
slice it effectively

and put it in the bag
without creating condensation

because if we had
condensation,

we might encourage mold growth.

And are they going
up in a spiral?

So we've got on this side,
we've got the loaves going up,

they go across and the
come down this spiral.

[Gregg] How many loaves of
bread are in here, mate?

[John] Well over the two hours,

just over 16,000 at its
maximum.

[Gregg] It's really difficult
for me to imagine

Mrs. Jones from
Kincave Road, Peckham

unwrapping that loaf
of bread tomorrow.

I've been in the food business
for a long, long time,

and this may be the
most extraordinary sight

I've ever witnessed.

I'm starting to appreciate

just how much work goes
every loaf they make here.

Right now the loaf I'm making's

got nothing to do but chill
out for a couple of hours.

So I'm going exploring
to see how they make

one of the nation's
other bakery favorites.

Oh, we love our
muffins in the UK.

We get through over 146 million
of the things every year.

That maybe the best
thing I've ever seen.

And almost half of those are
made in this one factory.

Joanna Turner is in
charge of making sure

they're all up to scratch.

That's lovely, everybody
should have one of them

at the end of their gardens.

[Joanna] A life size one.

Why do they come down
that slide like that?

What it does, it slows the
process of 'em coming down.

If they came down on one big
tube it would be too fast.

[Gregg] After they're baked,

the muffins come out
of the cooler upstairs

and are dropped down
to this packing line.

As they drop, these spirals

also divide the
muffins into two rows

to give Joanna a better look
at them as they go past.

They all look exactly
the same to me.

How would you know the
difference between-

No, right, let me have a look.

We've got that one,
near perfect.

That one is small and dumpy,
so it ain't really any good.

As someone who considers
himself as small and dumpy,

I think that's a bit mean.

How many muffins are
going through here?

[Joanna] Roughly
18,000 pieces an hour.

[Gregg] 18,000 an hour!

Yeah and roughly about
1.3 million a week.

We are eating a lot of
eggs Benedict aren't we?

We are.

It's just bouncing
them across the-

That's it, yeah. It's
like a pinball machine.

[Gregg] Why is it doing that?

[Joanna] It's evenly
dispersing them

so there's the same
amount both sides.

If I was gonna be
a bakery product,

- I'd wanna be a muffin.
- [Joanna laughs]

It's like a day out
at the Epsom Derby.

[Gregg laughs]

And they're under starters
orders, and they're off.

- And then it comes on track.
- That is just brilliant.

Do you know the Muffin man?

I do.

[jazzy music]

[Gregg] While Joanne's busy
making muffins

to feed the nation,

I've come back to check on
how my loaf's getting on.

It's spent two hours lazily
circling the cooling tower,

and now it's on the
way to meet Lee Smith,

the man whose job it is
to bag 'em and tag 'em.

I've been watching
these loaves of bread

since they were flour.

Yeah.

This is the final stage, right?

Okay, yeah.

Right, what'll happen next

is it'll travel through
a slicing machine.

It'll be sliced into
different slices,

whether you want medium
or whether you want thick.

Medium you have 20 slices.
On a thick you have 18.

- I like thick.
- You like thick?

You're on the right
side, this is thick.

You've got 18 slices on here.

[Gregg] Thick sliced is the
most popular type of bread

everywhere in the UK except
the North East of England

where for some reason
they prefer their slices

a little thinner.

Next up the sliced loaf goes
into an unbelievable invention.

Dah! [laughs].

A high speed bagging machine.

Literally the best thing
since sliced bread.

As the scoops moving forward
it's blowing air into the bag

so the scoop will raise up,

it'll open it up and it
will actually drag the bag

onto the loaf of bread.

[Gregg] So, from what I
understand about that,

the bread is falling, the
loaf of bread slice is falling

from one conveyor to another.

Yeah it is, yeah.

And in that time an arm is
blowing up a plastic bag

- and pulling it over it.
- That's right yeah.

- Get out the way.
- Here have a look.

Go and get a cup of tea, I'm
gonna watch this for a while.

[upbeat music]

All right. Okay, now what?

Is this the end of the journey?

No, no, it's got a bit
further to go yet.

It's gotta be metal
detected for contamination.

- Metal detected?
- Yeah.

[Gregg] How can
metal get in there?

There's all types of
machinery on the plant.

If you asked 100
people on the street

something that they would least
expect to find in a bakery,

I reckon top answer would
be metal detector [laughs].

Can I test it?

[Lee] Yeah, of course
you can, carry on, yeah.

[Gregg] To make sure the metal
detector is working properly,

they regularly feed
through a fake loaf

with tiny pieces of metal
in it.

[Laughs]

[soft rock music]

The final stage for everything
made here at the bakery

is the 62,000 square
foot dispatch hold.

Exactly three and a half hours

after the flour
first left the silo,

my loaf is ready
to hit the road.

And it's Dispatch
Manager Matt Stevens' job

to get that done as
quickly as possible.

I baked a loaf today.

I've been hard at
it in the bakery.

When are the customers
gonna be able

to actually get
their hands on it?

It'll be tomorrow morning

no matter where in
the country you are.

- Is that right?
- That's right.

That's not bad, mate.

[Matt] Our busiest time of
day for vehicle movement

is about three o'clock
in the morning.

[Gregg] So it can get
to the stores by 9?

- -Correct, yeah.
- Is that right?

[Gregg] I know this cause I
used to be a greengrocer

delivering to restaurants.

We would start at about one,
two o'clock in the morning.

So we could get deliveries
to their door at nine.

Exactly the same for you.

That's right, every store
has to have their bread

as early as possible.

So does that mean this
space might fill up

and then empty again?

[Matt] It does, yes.

So we started
picking this morning,

and we'll be picking
the customer orders

until about two o'clock
tonight.

By about five o'clock
in the morning,

all of those orders
will have disappeared

and the floor will
be virtually empty.

So while the rest
of the nation sleeps,

this place is a massive
hive of activity?

[Matt] Absolutely, it's at
its busiest at the night time.

You guys are vampires.

Some of you must
never see daylight.

The dispatch holding
is responsible

for delivering every product
made at the West Brom bakery,

but they also handle products

from Allied's nine
other bakeries,

which means this place
never, ever stops.

How many loaves like mine

are going through your
dispatch every day?

On our busiest day it could
be up to a million loaves.

That includes bread,
muffins, rolls.

[Gregg] Which one causes
you the most headaches?

[Matt] Probably rolls.

In the winter demand can be
about three million a week,

but in the summer
if the sun comes out

on a Thursday afternoon

you know that forecast can go up

to five million in two days
time,

and especially as it
gets towards the weekend,

you know full well that people
are watching the forecast,

barbecues on the go and
then we're gonna be in

for a torrid time for
the next 48 hours.

So the rest of the
nation loves its picnics,

loves its barbecues, apart
from you, you hate them?

Exactly, we love the rain.

[Gregg laughs]

Supermarkets only place
their orders the day before,

so the process of dispatching
the million items a day

is an incredible feat.

It takes some heavylifting,
some careful planning

and it turns out a fair
amount of hard graft.

Well we've got about 30,000
baskets to pick by hand today

before two o'clock in the
morning, are you ready?

Hang on, hang on, hang
on, hang on, hang on.

So I understand and
don't mess it up,

these brown baskets here, we
have to fulfill 30,000 of them?

Correct, yes.

We have to lift
them all by hand?

The vast majority will be
picked individually yes.

[Gregg] Like most
large bakeries,

the dispatch hall uses
a bit of high tech kit

to help keep
the humans in check.

[ computer voice, indistinct ]

The pick-by-voice system

is a simple voice-activated
computer

which collates all the
supermarkets' orders

and tells the packers exactly
what needs to go where.

Well, when I say simple...

[Computer] Take 3-2 of 6.

"Take 3-2 of 6."
What does that mean?

That means take 32 of 6
units, how's your maths?

Uh, not great.

Right, so, there I need
32 lots of sixes.

How many is 32 sixes?

192.

How do you know that?

I just worked it out.

192 and how many have
I got in each tray?

24.

- Do you enjoy a muffin?
- I love a muffin yeah.

Good to know.

Oh five, six, yeah, right,
we've completed that one.

So drop that, at the
bottom of the first stack,

- so we're starting a new stack.
- Oh, my guns fell off.

Right, that's my first
supermarket done, brilliant.

Good, that's the first one.
There's thousands to do.

Let's get going.

[Computer]
Next, go to [indistinct]

Right. Yeah, that's what I want.

-Scan product.
- So I scan that.

[Computer] Take two of five.

Two of five, that's 10,
that's 10, that's 10.

[Computer] Next take 37535.

Oh, my maths is terrible.

- 200.
-Go to store 375.

Yes!

- Go to bay.
-35.

Four of muffins.

Five of these to a thing,
that's 10, that's easy.

[Computer] Next drop 206.

[Gregg] This dispatch hall is
working 24 hours a day.

But it's not until the
wee hours,

when we're tucked up in bed,
that things really get manic.

Every night bakeries
like this all over the UK

are frantically loading
bread that's just hours old,

ready for us to buy
the next morning.

Over 60 trucks will leave
this one bakery tonight,

and the loaf I made could
end up as far away as Ireland

or it might just end up

at the supermarket
around the corner.

It's impossible to comprehend
baking bread on this scale

until you've seen every
single loaf of bread

come whizzing past you.

I stupidly believed it was
gonna be a simple process,

it's not.

It's a highly
complicated process

because it's such
a fast process.

It has to be if they are
gonna supply the whole nation

with thousands upon thousands
of identical loaves of bread.