All language subtitles for Inside.the.Factory.S02E03.Baked.Beans.1080p.PMTP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

♪ MTV ♪

[bright upbeat music]

♪ ♪

- We eat more baked beans
in Britain

than anywhere else on earth.

- Every day, we consume
over two million cans of them.

- That takes hundreds
of sacks of beans like this.

- Tonight, we're going to tell
the truly extraordinary story

behind an ordinary can of
beans.

By taking you inside

the biggest food factory
in Europe!

I'm Gregg Wallace.

That's a tin of beans, innit?

And I'll be revealing
the secrets

of this astonishing
production line.

A billion beans
is gonna go through here,

and the laser is gonna
look at every single bean!

And the science
behind the magic.

That is mega strong!
That's quite incredible.

That is simply that
with ripples in it.

Turning a humble little bean

into one of the 300,000 tons of
baked beans we eat every year.

Mate, what it takes to give us
beans on toast, eh?

- [fire roars]
- [upbeat music]

I'm Cherry Healey.

I'll show you
the incredible journey

your recycled tin goes on

in order to make it back
to your pantry.

God, it's so hot.

Bits of it are just falling off
as it rolls away.

- Historian Ruth Goodman
discovers that

tin food was once
a matter of life and death.

Malnutrition had killed

more than half
of the British seamen.

♪ ♪

- Three million cans
of baked beans

will roll out of this
one factory

in the next 24 hours.

- And this
is the incredible story

of how they do it.

- Welcome
to "Inside the Factory."

- [bike wheel spins]
- [wrench clinks]

[conveyor clicks along]

[machine whirs]

[chips crunch]

[conveyor whirs]

[cereal clatters]

[words thud]

- [upbeat music]
- [conveyor whirs]

[upbeat music]

This is the Heinz factory
in Wigan.

It works around the clock
with 1,200 staff

to make 200 different products,

including spaghetti, soup,

and its biggest seller,
baked beans.

They come in all sorts
of varieties and containers

like plastic resealable jars

and individual portion pots
for the microwave.

But tonight, we're making
the traditional best seller,

baked beans in a can.

♪ ♪

Each bean will go
on an incredible

mile and half journey
through this factory

before they are packaged
and ready to head

to your local supermarket
less 24 hours later.

♪ ♪

The factory in Wigan
is enormous,

covering 54 acres,

five times the size
of Wembley Stadium.

It's the largest food
processing plant in Europe

and the biggest baked bean
factory on the planet.

Bringing in the beans

is ingredients inspector,
John Brady.

Right, John, that's it!
That's our load of beans, yeah?

- Yep.
- First one of the morning?

- Yep.
- Come on then.

[grunts]

How many of these come
in every day?

- About 20.
- Right.

I'll move to the back.
Come on then.

Let's have a look at is.

I did not expect that.

I don't know why.
I just didn't expect that.

How many of those big bags
on there?

- 10 in total,
two ton in weight.

- 10 two-ton bags of beans.

Driver!
We're ready.

- [upbeat music]
- [truck hums]

Overseeing the arrival
of the beans

is operations manager Gary
Dent.

- We typically take in
12 to 14 containers a day.

We'll do 50,000 ton a year.

But when you consider

we'll make over three million
cans of beans a day,

that's why we need
so many beans.

- Three million cans
of beans a day.

Oh yeah, easy. Yeah.

- Three million cans
of beans rolling out of here?

In 20, yes.

- Forgive me, but what bean
is in a tin of beans?

- That's them, Gregg,
the haricot beans.

- I really love it that we eat
so many of these,

yet we probably don't know
their name.

We probably don't know
what they are.

- No.
These are haricot beans.

- Haricot beans
start life in a pod.

[soft bright music]

They grow throughout
the summer months

and left to dry on the plant.

The beans I'm following
come from North America,

where the climate provides
the perfect growing conditions.

Every week, 1,000 tons of beans
are loaded into containers

and shipped
to the Port of Liverpool.

Then they're trucked the final
20 miles here to the factory.

[truck hums]

- So these little things.
- Yeah.

- How long roughly before
they become a tin of beans?

- You could see a finished tin
of beans within two hours.

- I suppose
it is possible for me

to see every single stage
of this process, isn't it?

It certainly is, Gregg.

Maybe taste a few at the end?

Oh, without doubt.

[upbeat music]

- The bags of beans are brought
out of their shipping containers

and into the factory
at bean intake.

[timer beeping]

This is where the baked bean
production line begins.

In just 24 hours,
these beans could be in a can

on a supermarket shelf.

Each two-ton bag is carefully
positioned above a funnel.

When the bag is opened,

the beans drop onto an enclosed
conveyor that takes them

to the first stage
of processing.

- Could I have a go at that?
- Certainly.

Don't go anywhere, Gary,

'cause if it falls over,
I'm blaming you.

[machinery whirs]

Each bag contains

nine and a half million
individual beans,

enough to fill more
than 20,000 cans.

♪ ♪

- That's a lot of beans
to drop, Gregg.

Whoa.

That's a bit tense, that, Gary.

- Yeah.
- All right, now pull that.

- [dramatic music]
- [beans clatter]

- There they go.
- Yay!

[beans clatter]

My dry beans are traveling
to the blanching room,

which is 200 meters away
from the intake area,

to prevent contamination
from the outside world.

They move at five miles an hour
on an enclosed conveyor,

and it takes five minutes
for the first beans to arrive.

Here, there'll be rehydrated.

- Okay, Gregg,
we're now gonna see

how we rehydrate
our dried beans.

What we've got here
is the dried beans

that you loaded up for us
about five minutes ago.

They've now reached
the blancher,

and this is where
we put the water

back into that dry bean.

[up-tempo music]

In the blanching process,

they pass through two
85-degrees Celsius,

steam-heated chambers,

each soaking the beans
for 10 minutes.

- Time and temperature are key
in rehydration process.

♪ ♪

- Blanching in steam
quickly softens the outside

of the dry bean
and lets in water.

That's the before and after.

- They've swollen up
incredibly.

- Yeah.
- But not cooked.

Not cooked.

If you want to try one, you
can,

but they're certainly
not cooked.

It's just got a bit of give,
but in the middle,

it's as hard as, like,
an uncooked risotto.

Yeah.

- I quite like 'em.
You got any salt?

The rehydrated beans
are washed in warm water

to get rid of any loose skins.

- Finally, the laser
sorter actually

detects any discolored beans

and rejects them
with an air jet.

- [Gregg laughs]
- Honestly, yeah.

- Really?
- Yes.

Really? Okay, go on then.

- 20 years ago, there would be
people flicking the beans up

with spoons,
but now we use a laser sorter.

[bright upbeat electronic
music]

♪ ♪

There are two lasers,

one above and one below
the beans,

that examine them
from every angle.

A laser spots a discolored bean
and fires an air jet

that knocks it off
the production line.

- The puffing noise that you
hear is the gun firing,

knocking the beans off.

- Every one of those
little clicks is a jet of air?

- Yeah, exactly.
- And a bean dying?

Bean being rejected.

- A has-bean.
- A has-bean. Very good.

- Within the next
couple of hours,

these will be in a can ready
to head to a supermarket.

- [bright cheery music]
- [fork clinks]

[fork clinks]

Mm.

This tin of baked beans
is about to go

on an incredible journey.

Not the beans,
I've just finished those,

but the tin itself
will go through

an extraordinary process
to end up back

in someone else's cupboard.

It all begins the moment

you throw it
in the recycling bin.

[can thuds]

Did I just get that in?

In most major cities,

you can throw all of your
recycling into one bag,

but how is it all sorted
to make sure

that my tin can ends up
in the right place?

You do it with one of these,

what's lovingly
known as the MRF,

Materials Recovery Facility,

and it's one of the largest
of its kind in the world.

[up-tempo lively music]

At this recycling center
in East London,

their MRF sorts 520 truckloads
every week.

My guide through it
all is David Rumble.

Wow. That is a monster machine.

It looks like teeth
grinding everything.

What is this actually doing?

- Well, this is actually
separating out

into three different sizes,
very big,

which just rolls over the top,
medium size,

which is where steel can goes,
and then very small,

which is broken glass
and shredded paper.

There it goes, your can.

- There it is. There it is.
- You see it there?

- Once it's all separated
into different sizes,

it moves on to be
sorted by shape.

Flat objects like paper
and cardboard

travel along
the top of the wheels

while the rest,
including my can, drop through

and are collected at the
bottom.

So it's a matter
of surface area.

Absolutely, yes.

Surface area and physics.

Now that it's been
sorted by size and shape,

it needs some
high-tech equipment

to separate it further.

- This is the near-infrared
optical separator,

and what this is doing is
taking plastic off of the belt.

So we're actually
pulling out EET,

which is the clear plastic
drinks bottles.

- A sensor
in the separator detects

how much light
is passing through

or reflecting off
the different materials.

So it can spot
the clear plastic bottles,

and they get blown off the
belt.

Can it really be that detailed

that it can see
an individual bottle?

Absolutely.

- Finally, my steel can
is picked up

and separated from
the aluminum drinks cans.

This is an electro magnet
that will lift the can

off of the belt, move it over
above a beam,

and then drop it off.

- So once the tin has been
dropped by the magnet,

where does it go then?

It goes to the bailer

where we make it
into a big square bail

with ferrous metal.

- The bailing machine
crushes up to 40,000 tin cans

into one single cube,
each weighing one ton.

- [soft electronic music]
- [forklift hums]

This one includes my can.

- [machinery whirs]
- [cans clatter]

[bright jaunty music]

Back at the factory,

it's been 25 minutes since
my dry beans arrived,

and now they've been
rehydrated.

To make baked beans,

every manufacturer
uses haricot beans,

but they all create their
own particular tomato sauce.

Here at Heinz,
their special ingredients

are prepared
in the spice mixing area.

The recipe
is classified information,

and making sure
it stays that way

is manufacturing coordinator
Paul Sherrington.

- This is where we make up
the secret spices

what makes the beans famous.

- What do you mean
the secret spices?

- Secret.
No one knows.

Only two people in the world
know about these spices.

- Who do you think you are,
James Bond?

- Yes. [chuckles]
- Mate, get out of here!

The ingredients are listed
on the label of a can of beans,

but because no recipe
could be copyrighted,

the exact proportions they use
are a trade secret

known only by the head buyer
and the chief quality officer.

The secret spice recipe has
stayed the same since 1896

and is delivered to the factory
as three anonymous powder mixes.

- What are they?
- I don't know.

You honestly don't know
what they are?

Honestly, I don't know.

I can taste these,
though, can't I?

- 'Cause I.
- Indeed, yes, yes.

- I might be able to work out
what's in it.

- But if you do that,
we'll have to kill ya.

Surely working out

what's in the three different
mixes shouldn't be too hard.

Oh!

They're so strong.

You got a salty one,
a pepper chili one,

and a sweet garlicky one.

Do you know what
I conclude from that?

- I haven't got a clue.
- [laughs] Not at all.

- Paul doesn't know
the exact ingredients,

but he does know
how much of each mix

to measure out
for our bag of spices.

What quantity of tomato
are we gonna add this to?

- We're gonna add it to a
batch, which is five ton in weight.

- And how many tins will
that make roughly?

Approximately 20,000.

- 20,000 from this little bag?
- Yes.

- No wonder
my lips were tingling.

[bright jaunty music]

I'm taking my bag
of secret spices next door

to the sauce room

where sauce operator
Peter Foster

is ready to mix up a batch.

- Hello, mate!
- Oh, hello, Gregg!

Lovely to see ya.

- I've got some spice.
- Right.

- What is this room?
- It's the sauce room.

You control the spice.

- Control the bulk,
the water, boilers.

You're the chef.

Well, you could say so.

- Peter is in charge
of eight mixing bowls,

each one holding enough sauce
for 20,000 tins of beans.

♪ ♪

- There's you're tomato puree.
- Oh!

♪ ♪

Then I add my bag of spices.

This is just like adding
a stock cube at home.

With a press of a button,

Peter adds starch
to thicken the sauce.

The sugar and salt are blown
through pipes into the mixer,

then some vinegar, but they
won't tell me how much.

It's a secret.

And finally, it's all blended
in the giant food mixer.

Don't you think it might be
a little bit too technical

for an old-fashioned
tin of beans?

- We make the best beans,
so that's what we do.

- After 15 minutes,
the sauce is ready.

♪ ♪

That's a tin of beans, innit?

That's a tin of beans.

- Our tomato sauce is on its
way to get mixed with the beans.

Next, we're gonna
need some cans.

They can make up to four
million baked bean cans

in this factory every day
and for that,

you need a lot of steel.

- [upbeat music]
- [vehicle rumbles]

- I followed my old tin
can from the recycling plant

to Tata Steel
in Port Talbot, Wales.

This is the largest steel works
in the UK.

In six hours,
my can will be part

of a brand new sheet of steel.

- [flames roar]
- [dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Here, scrap metal makes up
over a quarter

of the finished steel.

And so my old, recycled tin can

is about to be combined
with this raw iron ore.

[dramatic music]

It's been mined from rocks
as far away as Australia.

To make steel, the iron ore
is tipped into a blast furnace,

mixed with a type
of coal called coke,

and heated to over
2,000 degrees.

The result is almost
pure molten iron,

which is poured into
brick-lined steel vessels

called torpedoes
and shunted across the yard

to the most incredible place
I've ever set foot in.

♪ ♪

That is absolutely
unbelievable.

♪ ♪

Here, my tin can, along with
the rest of the scrap metal,

is being loaded
into a huge skip.

Tim Rutter talks me
through the process.

Two things are gonna happen.

Firstly, the scrap metal
is gonna come along

- and be charged into the mouth.
- Which is there?

- Which is coming down
the bay as we speak.

So that's scrap metal,

and how much scrap metal
is in there?

So there's anywhere between
50 and 100 tons of scrap metal,

so maybe the equivalent of up

to two million steel cans will
be in that charging vessel.

- Whoa, so my tin can could
potentially be in there,

and that scrap metal is gonna
go

into the mouth of the cauldron,
and what is over there?

- So here you can see
the ladle full of molten iron.

So we've just come
from the blast furnace

where that's been made.

It's now in a ladle,
and that's ready to charge

on top of the scrap
in the steel-making vessel.

- [dramatic whimsical music]
- [machine rumbles]

- From behind the safety
of a concrete wall,

we can watch the action.

First, the scrap metal is
tipped into the 12-meter-high cauldron.

♪ ♪

The whole building is shaking.

♪ ♪

Then, 300 tons of molten iron
is poured on top.

♪ ♪

Wow.

♪ ♪

Finally, pure oxygen is pumped
in at supersonic speed.

[flames roar]

Carbon and other impurities
turn into a gas,

leaving behind the steel
we need to make cans.

How many tins of baked beans
am I looking at right now?

- If you estimate that we're
making about 320 tons of steel,

then that maybe makes about,
let's say, eight million cans.

Eight million cans.

[whimsical dramatic music]

The new steel is poured
into a water-cooled mold

to reduce the temperature
and turn it

into a slab that weighs
around 30 tons.

God, it's so hot

that bits of it are just
falling off as in rolls away.

That is absolutely amazing!

Before the slab of steel can
be made into a baked bean can,

it needs to be a lot thinner.

So it enters this kilometer-
and-a-half-long hall

to be compressed.

♪ ♪

It passes through
a series of rollers,

exerting almost
4,000 tons of force,

which make it longer
and thinner.

Oh wow! So it's being rolled up
into a huge coil.

You really feel
that intense heat.

The steel is constantly
cooled with water,

and it's at a temperature

just low enough
to hold its shape.

A second set
of rollers transforms

60 meter-long coil

into a kilometer-long
length of sheet steel.

♪ ♪

That sheet steel is moving
at an unbelievable speed.

30 to 40 miles an hour.

Five minutes later,

the steel is coiled up
for the last time.

♪ ♪

- It starts off with a slab
that's about ten meters long,

and by the time
we squashed it down

to two millimeters thick,

that is about
one kilometer of steel.

♪ ♪

- Once it's rolled up into
that amazingly neat roll,

where does it go next?

- So the next place
for this coil to go

will be our sister plant
in Trostre

who's gonna cold roll it
to make it even thinner

and coat it with tin
before they pass it on

to Heinz, our customer,
to make baked bean cans.

- So this product
is still steel,

and later on,
it becomes a tin can.

- Well, people call it
a tin can, but of course,

it's a steel can that's got
a coating of tin on it.

It seems unfair.

Okay, I'll call it
a steel can from now on.

Okay, excellent.

[soft dramatic music]

- Coating the steel can with
tin

creates a barrier
to stop air, water,

and beans touching
the surface of the steel.

♪ ♪

It prevents the can from
rusting

and will protect
the beans inside.

♪ ♪

Finally, the coated steel
is cut into sheets

and trucked off
to the factory in Wigan,

where it could find its way

to your kitchen cupboard
within a few days.

So next time you open
your tin of beans,

spare a thought for
the unbelievable engineering

that's gone into making it.

[fire rumbles]

[water splashes]

[dramatic music]

- Back at the factory,
it's been 45 minutes

since my dried
haricot beans arrived.

They've been blanched
to rehydrate them,

and my tomato sauce
has been mixed.

Now I need something
to put it all in.

Heinz have their own can-making
factory here on site.

Every day, 168 tons
of steel arrives,

enough to make more
than five million cans.

The engineer in charge
is Darren Maloney.

So we buy the sheet steel
in one-meter-square sheets,

approximately.

- The sheets of steel
are fed into a machine

that cuts them into strips.

- So we slit that way
into long strips.

Then we slit it this way
into the final blank.

- Wow!
- That's cut into 16 of those.

- How many tins will
that now make?

Two.

♪ ♪

The transfer system
collects them,

takes 'em to the
welding machine.

- It's taking about 100 at
once!

- It's taking more than 100.
It's taking 240 at a time.

- It's like one of
those fun fair games...

The gripper.

- where you have
to grab the toy.

In a fraction of a second,
each steel strip is bent round

to form a cylinder
with the edges overlapping

by just half a millimeter.

In a process called
resistance welding,

two electrodes heat up
the steel edges,

melting them
and joining them together.

Heats it up, sticks it
together. - Yes.

- It's now the right shape
for a can,

but it's big enough to make
two.

[upbeat music]

So the cylinders travel
across the room on conveyors

and into a machine
which finally turns into a can.

- So this part
of the kit rotates.

It basically splits it in two.

So go like that.

Yeah.

Rips it up.

That doesn't seem anywhere as
strong as a finished tin can.

I can't do that with
my can of beans.

We put the ripples on the can
to make the can strong.

If we didn't do that,

you'd end up where the cans
would just squash.

The ripples give it
the strength.

- So the next machine
rotates the can around a mold

that creates ripples
on its body.

These help to keep the can
rigid

to prevent it collapsing
under pressure.

You can feel the difference.

- Yeah, that's sturdy.
That's quite incredible.

That is simply
that with ripples in it.

Yes.

- And then over there,
it's putting the tops on.

- Yep. It's putting the tops
on the bottom of the can.

- Circular steel can ends
arrive at the factory ready-made.

[machinery whirs]

They're dropped on top
of one end of the can,

and the ages are folded
over to make a seal.

This happens over
1,000 times a minute,

and now they're off
on their way to be filled.

[dramatic music]

In the early 19th century,

food preservation was
a matter of life and death.

For all of the military might
of both the British

and the French navies,
the question of food

was playing on the minds
of the warring admirals.

Malnutrition had killed more
than half of the British seamen

in the previous
Seven Years' War,

so solving this problem
was imperative.

To find out what was going
wrong with the naval diet,

I'm aboard the Gannett,
a Victorian naval ship,

to meet historian
Alex Patterson.

Could you tell me why on Earth

were all his men
suffering malnutrition?

Surely they loaded the ships up
with supplies before they left.

- Fresh food stocks would dry,
spoil very quickly.

So you were left
with the bare bones,

which was the dried
food products.

Dried fruit products didn't
have that much nutrition in them.

Coupled with, you know,
lack of fresh water,

the men weren't getting
what they needed.

It wasn't a great diet
to be at sea

four, five months at a time.

- Away without vitamin C
for months,

the sailors were prone
to diseases like scurvy,

suffering muscle and joint
pain, red rashes, and swelling gums.

Do you think they were
actually going hungry,

or is it the quality
of the nutrition

that's the problem?

- Potentially a bit of both,
actually.

The quality of the nutrition
wasn't great.

We know that,
and if foods spoiled quicker

than they could've
controlled it,

they would've had
to lessen the rations.

So to be able to feed four
to 800 men on board

was a huge feat that the
Navy really struggled with.

- [soft pleasant music]
- [seagulls cawing]

Across the channel,

the French Navy faced
the same problem.

In 1795, they offered a cash
prize to the first person

to find a new method
of food preservation.

♪ ♪

The winner was Nicholas Appert.

He found that, by heating food
inside glass bottles

and sealing them up with a plug
of cream cheese and slate lime,

he could preserve food
almost indefinitely.

The British quickly
jumped on the bandwagon,

coming up with
their own version.

Looking for
a less fragile material,

they turned to their already
established industry, tinplate.

Author John Nutting has made
a replica of their solution.

Why change from
glass bottles to tin cans?

- Well, glass bottles
were fragile,

so you didn't want really
to have to use something

which was not particularly
good at resisting knocks

and bashes
and all the sort of things

that would happen
to preserve foods on ships.

[soft upbeat music]

- The innovator who made
the first successful tin cans

for preservation was a man
called Bryan Donkin.

He set up the first tin
canning factory

in the world in London,

and the principles
of counting he pioneered

are still the same today.

So food goes in there.

First, he filled
the can with food

through a hole in the top.

- So now what we have to do
is cover that hole--

- Right.
- And solder that on.

Okie doke.

Then added a lid with
a much smaller hole.

So now we've got
everything closed except

for one tiny little hole.

When he cooked
the food inside the can,

steam could escape
through the hole,

but it was then sealed up,

preserving the food
inside the can.

And that's it. So now
the food in there is cooked.

All the bacteria are killed,
and because it's now sealed,

no new bacteria can get in.

Exactly, yes.

And it's preserved
with all its nutritional

and vitamin values intact.

That's the key part of it

that your nutritional value
is completely preserved, yes.

[bright upbeat music]

So the tin can was born.

By 1818, Donkin's factory
was supplying the Navy

with almost 24,000 cans a year,

including soup,
meat, and vegetables,

all rich in vitamins
and minerals.

The nutrition of the British
seamen was hugely improved,

and this humble invention
saved thousands of lives.

- [upbeat music]
- [machinery whirs]

- Back in Wigan,
my three vital ingredients

are being brought together
for the first time

in the filling hole.

The beans and dropping
down from blanching,

tomato sauce is coming
from the kitchen next door,

and the cans are traveling
from can making

on the other side of the site.

I'm following them to meet
filling operator Jason Lowe.

- This is the starts
the process, Gregg.

We'll get the cans
from can making,

they come down the gantry,

and they go straight
into the bean end.

- The blanched beans arrive
at the rotating bean head

and fill up the small round
compartments on top.

Then they drop into
the waiting cans below.

On average,
465 beans into every can.

It all happens so fast,

I'll just have to take
their word for it.

So you don't add
the tomato sauce yet?

- No, the tomato sauce
is in the next step.

- Can I see the sauce go in?
- Yeah, of course you can.

This is what we call
a sauce filler.

Happens at a rapid pace,
my friend, doesn't it?

Endless sauce being put on.

The cans are passing
at such a rapid rate

that the sauce has to be
squirted in at high pressure.

- After the sauce, you've got
the beans in the can,

the sauce in the can,
then it puts the lid on.

[upbeat music]

Here in filling,

the can ends are stacked
into a machine by hand.

Whatever you do, don't drop it,

or else you'll end up with
all them can ends everywhere.

[machinery whirs]

Yay!

♪ ♪

Finally, the cans are sealed.

But I've just realized.
The beans haven't been cooked!

They're not cooked yet,
are they?

- No, them are not cooked yet.
Them beans are blanched.

They get cooked further down.

- Inside the tin?
- Inside the tin.

The beans and the sauce are
cooked together in a sealed tin?

Yes.

Does that sound right to you?

That's our process, Gregg.

Who knew that?

No one would ever dream
that those beans

go into that can uncooked.

Cooking them once they're
in the can kills any bacteria

that might be inside,
preserving the contents,

and Cherry's been
finding out exactly

how long tin food will last.

[bright upbeat guitar music]

- If you're anything like me,
tins are bought

for a rainy day,
and then they end up

at the back of the cupboard,
gathering dust.

But how long can they sit
there and still okay to eat?

If they're past
their best before date,

they can still be used as long
as they're not dented,

punctured, swollen, or rusty.

But is canned food
as nutritious as fresh?

To find out,

I'm going to the Health
and Life Sciences Department

at the University of Coventry.

First, I've brought them
a tin of tomatoes

14 months past
its best before date.

Dietician Carla Phillips
is going to measure

the amount of vitamin C
in the tinned tomatoes

and compare that to fresh ones.

- We've got some
fresh tomatoes here.

So we need to blend them down,

and then we can extract
the vitamin C.

Here we go.

♪ ♪

[laughs]

Scientist Andrew Reed
puts our tinned

and fresh samples
into a liquid chromatographer

to separate and measure
that vitamin C levels.

So the results show
that the fresh tomatoes

that we bought today
have the same vitamin C level

as the tinned tomatoes.

- What?
I'm completely gobsmacked.

- Well, we can explain
that because these

would've been tinned
as soon as they were picked,

and these fresh tomatoes
might have been hanging around

in a warehouse before
they went to the supermarket,

so the vitamin C content
will degrade

from these fresh products.

- So canning preserves
the nutrients,

whereas in fresh food,
they continually degrade.

Next, the lab has found
another can to test.

It's slightly out of date.

["Stayin' Alive" plays]

- What?
- 45-year-old can of skippers.

♪ Stayin' alive ♪

Ooh, it comes with a key.

- I think you put.
- Yeah.

- That bit in there.
- I think so.

- These fish haven't been
out of bed

- for 45 years.
- I know. Absolutely.

- Theoretically,
there's no limit

on how long fish can be kept
nutritionally sound in a can.

That is absolutely incredible.

They look fresh,
they smell fresh.

But what I would like to know

is are there any hidden
microbes in them?

We shall find out.

- To see if the fish
is still safe to eat,

microbiologist
Dr. Daniel Hammond

places samples on Petri dishes

that need to be incubated
for microbe testing.

The results will take five
days.

As a dietician,
would you recommend cans?

Absolutely.

They're a great way
of helping us to meet

our nutritional requirements.

You know, if we buy fresh fruit
and vegetables,

then they can stay
in our fridge,

and if we don't use them up
quick enough,

then the nutrients
can become less over time.

But tinned vegetables will
really keep the nutrition

locked in for longer.

- So fresh is wonderful
if eaten quickly,

but cans are a fantastic way
of getting good food

into our body very
conveniently.

Absolutely.

["Stayin' Alive"]

And the old tin of skippers,

after a sample was incubated
in a Petri dish for five days,

it showed no signs
of bacterial growth.

So remarkably, after 45 years,
the fish is fit to eat.

♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah,
stayin' alive, stayin' alive ♪

- But before you eat any food
from out of date cans,

make sure the can is intact
and in good condition

and the contents look
and smell okay.

[machinery hisses and whirs]

- [dramatic music]
- [timer beeps]

- Back at the factory,
it's been 52 minutes

since I released my beans
from the bag.

They've already been blanched
and sealed inside the can.

Now it's finally time
to cook them.

[machinery hisses]

Just like a household
pressure cooker,

steam is used
to raise the pressure

and the temperature inside
the cooking chamber.

There are five chambers
in each cooker,

and inside each one
is a giant corkscrew,

which continuously turns,

moving the cans from one end
of the chamber to the other.

The movement mixes the beans
and sauce inside the can,

and the heat from
the steam cooks them.

Seven minutes later,

they move on
to the next chamber.

So what we do is we
send it up one way,

transfer it, and send
it all the way back,

transfer it again, send it
all the way back up this end.

- Why don't you just make
a great, big pot of beans

and sauce, cook it up,
stick it in a can?

- Well, we can't guarantee
that there won't be bacteria

in that product
when it cooked it up,

and we're sealing
that bacteria in a can

and close the spoiled product
or dangerous product

on the other side
of the process.

- 21 minutes
at a high temperature

and pressure kills
any bacteria inside the can.

That means the beans
will be good to eat

for at least the next 16
months.

That's why
it's perfectly preserved.

That is the beauty of canning.

It controls bacteria.

[dramatic music]

So it turns out that baked
beans aren't actually baked after all.

They're cooked using steam.

Mate, what it takes
to give us beans on toast, eh?

- [timer beeps]
- [tense music]

In just one hour and 27
minutes,

my beans have been blanched,
laser checked,

put in a can,
covered in tomato sauce,

and sent spiraling through
a pressure cooker.

They've been cooked
with the lid already sealed on,

so every two hours,
a team of experts take a can

off the production
line and taste it,

checking the texture
of the beans

and the flavor of the sauce.

As soon as my beans
get the green light,

it's time to put
a label on them.

Today,
that's Hayley Wright's job.

There's a hole in the wall
where the cooker is,

and they come straight
through to you?

- Yeah.
- How many?

- We package over
three million a day.

- These are still really warm.
- They are warm.

These are straight
from the cooker.

This is the way that
we normally label them.

A machine sprays each can

with a mist of glue
and sticks on a label.

It's all carefully monitored.

- The light that
you can see shining

is actually a camera.

That is taking a photograph

of every single label
that's applied.

- That's to make sure
that every label

has been stuck on straight.

Are my beans
finally ready to go?

They're almost ready to go.

We just need to do a couple
more quality checks.

- You're kidding me.
- No.

I'll just show you
one over here.

- Listen, they're cooked!
They're in the can!

They're gonna be okay!

- Let me just show you
our final quality check.

So we need to ensure that
the beans has got a vacuum.

What we mean by a vacuum
is that the end

is actually in a concave.

So if you feel that,

it's a nice tight vacuum
that's in the can.

- If a can gets knocked
or dented,

creating a hole,
the vacuum will be broken,

and the bottom
of the can will bulge outwards.

Luckily, the factory have
a way of preventing

any of those from
getting through.

Right.

I've opened that just
a little bit, right?

Yep.

- And now I'm gonna push
the lid down

- so the machine can't tell.
- Yep.

- That looks like
a sealed can, right?

Correct.

- But you reckon now
the bottom will have changed?

Yes.

- I'm gonna make a little
scrape in it, all right?

That ours.

- Put it back in the machine.
- Okay.

- The can passes
through a sensor,

which checks its bottom.

Even the smallest bulge
would indicate

there's a leak in the can,
and it would be rejected.

[laughs]
That's ridiculous!

That's not the neatest,

but that is in the top three
neatest things I've seen today.

- [Hayley laughs]
- [upbeat music]

My finished can
has been labeled.

Next, it's wrapped
and stacked onto a pallet

by two dancing robots.

[dramatic music]

But before the cans are sent
out to the supermarket,

they pass through the factory's
national distribution center.

Almost all Heinz products
made at their UK factories

are stored here.

As well as beans, soup,

and spaghetti made
at this factory,

the warehouse
will also store everything

from tomato ketchup
to salad cream.

Paul Andrews
is head of logistics

for this mammoth operation.

Oh my world.
What on earth?

It's amazing, isn't it?

That's just breathtaking.

In this warehouse here,

we can store 70,000 pallets
of product.

Imagine, on each pallet,
there's roughly 100 cases.

- This is one of the largest
food storage sites in the UK.

It's warm in here.
Do you heat this warehouse?

No, we don't need to at all.

Yeah, these beans that
will come in here today,

they're still warm
from the factory,

so actually, all the heat
from the product

is heating the warehouse here.

No way.

The heat I can feel,

because this is markedly warmer
than out there,

is just the heat from
the cooked beans?

- It's just the heat
from the cooked beans.

- Is anybody driving
those cranes?

- These cranes
are all automatic.

[machinery whirs and beeps]

This is just food
on a giant scale.

That's what it takes
to feed the nation.

[lift whines]

Just two hours ago,
I was hoisting my bag of beans

into place and releasing them
into the factory.

Now they are under the control

of these giant cranes.

The pallets of cans are stored
in the warehouse for 17 hours

while final quality tests
are completed

before being rolled out,
ready for departure.

Take it out and stick it
on a lorry.

Off it goes.

- All of these coming past me
are all going to shops,

a constant conveyor belt
into our kitchens.

- Into your kitchens.
- Never ending.

[pleasant upbeat music]

They make three million cans

of baked beans here
every single day.

But then when you think
about it,

there's hardly a kitchen
in the whole country

that hasn't got
a tin of beans in it.

It's the only product I know
that we would happily eat

for breakfast,
lunch, and dinner.

What I didn't realize
is the incredible technology

that goes into making

such an inexpensive
but everyday item.

I suppose, in a way,
it's quite fitting

that the country that eats
the most baked beans

also has the biggest
baked bean factory on earth.

Beans made at this factory
in Wigan

will go to homes all over the
UK

with the Northwest
taking the crown

for the biggest bean eaters.

They also head
to Ireland and Europe,

in fact, all over the world,
as far away as Nigeria,

India, and Australia,

who eat more baked beans

than any other country
outside the UK.

Last one?

- Yeah.
- All done?

Thanks, mate.
Thank you very much.

♪ ♪

There, 3,000 tins of beans
on that lorry,

and I saw those beans come in
dried from North America.

But who knows?

In a few days, someone might be
dipping their chips into 'em.

Okay, let's go!

Bean and gone.