All language subtitles for Inside.the.Factory.S09E04.Flapjacks.1080p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.HFR.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

Flapjacks. Wholesome - oats, syrup.

Nailed on. Beautiful.

They are such a big part of my life,

because if I was doing really well
at school I'd get a flapjack,

and it would be half dipped in
chocolate.

Honestly, you've never had anything
so delicious.

I have never heard that. That sounds
like a match made in heaven.

It was. Come on!

And we're not alone in loving these
golden bars.

As a nation, we munch our way
through millions

and millions of them every year.

So where better to find out how to
make these oaty treats...

..than a factory that makes
flapjacks on a monumental scale?

Before I landed in the world
of telly,

I worked in a few factories myself.

You're doing a great job.

And today I'm bringing
some of the glitz...

I tell you what, I see a Saturday
night game show in this.

..as I learn how they make
the perfect bite every time.

I could spend all day just
eating these.

And while I'm here grafting,

Cherry's in Ireland, finding out
about oats.

Don't worry, Paddy, I'm doing
my bit,

finding out how gorgeous grain...

This is like a great big windmill
going at an incredible speed.

..becomes a cereal staple.

Oh, what a beautiful sight!

It's like a snowstorm of oats.

And historian Ruth Goodman's
in Staffordshire...

This is an amazing-looking machine.

..discovering a local delicacy...

That is good.

...with a surprising history.

And a husband-and-wife team would
basically then sell oat cakes

from a window such as this.

It is just somebody's front window.
Absolutely.

This factory churns out
an astonishing 46 million

flapjacks every single year.

And we're going to find out
exactly how they do it.

Welcome to Inside the Factory.

This is the Graze factory in Hayes,
West London,

where every year they go through
a weighty one million kilos of oats.

A lot of oats.
Are we doing a selfie?

It's not an iPad.

The mixers, ovens and conveyors here
run around the clock,

turning out more than 170,000
flapjacks every day.

I like that. Keeping it clean.

Very good.

Flapjacks are a traditional flat
cake, made of oats and syrup,

but in this factory
they come in 16 varieties,

from cocoa vanilla to lemon and
blueberry,

and even cherry Bakewell.

It truly is a brave new
world of flapjack flavour.

But today I'm learning how they make
their sticky toffee oat boost.

Sticky toffee.

Can it get any better?

I want to know how these snack
sorcerers have put that

toffee magic into a flapjack.

And it all begins at the
intake bay...

..where I'm meeting manufacturing
director Tim Palmer...

Tim, how are you, sir?

..who's just taken a delivery.

Look at that.

Oh, there we go, a lorry load of
oats.

If I know anything about flapjacks,
these are a key ingredient.

So, how many oats have we got on
there?

We've got 22 tonnes.
A lot of flapjacks.

In fact, there are enough oats on
this truck to make a mouth-watering

1.5 million flapjacks.

And this is coming in day in,
day out, how many wagons a day?

We're doing one on a Monday
and one on a Wednesday.

You know, I love a bowl of porridge.

Are these the same oats?
They're exactly the same.

Oh, love that.

What size have we got on there?

I'm a big oat geek fan.

These are our jumbo oats.

Oh, look at these.

As I remember 'em.

The biggest oats on the market,

these jumbos are made
from the whole oat grain.

You hold that, Tim.

I'm just going to speak to the
people at home.

You lot, I'm going to put
the timer on screen. Here we go.

As the forklift moves in to shift 22
tonnes of jumbo oats,

production on my batch of flapjacks
begins,

and I'm left wondering, whether it
be for flapjacks or porridge,

how are oats like these made?

Luckily Cherry's on the case - well,
bridge - to find out more.

I'm in the Republic of Ireland,
in the County of Waterford.

Oats love plentiful rain to ripen
slowly and plump up,

so it's no surprise, then, that here
in Ireland, the climate is perfect.

The countryside here around
Kilmacthomas

gets an average of 160 rainy days
a year.

And nestled below the hills is
Flahavan's Mill.

It's one of the oldest family food
businesses in Ireland,

milling oats for more
than 235 years.

80 tonnes are delivered to the
mill from grain stores every day,

and checking today's load is
Johnny Flahavan,

a seventh generation miller.

Johnny Flahavan, lovely to meet you.

Cherry, very nice to meet you.
Welcome.

So what you don't know about oats
isn't really worth knowing.

Well, you're very generous.
But, yes.

These are some oats that have
been harvested last year.

So is it a kind of grass?

Yeah, it's a cereal grass.

And the oat is what's
right inside one of those heads.

So is that the bit you want?

That's the bit we want.

Is that edible? Can I eat that now?

It wouldn't be very nice.
OK.

Is that an oat?

Well, that is an oat,
but it's a seed of the plant.

How do you turn that,
which is inedible,

into something not just edible,
but really delicious?

Well, follow me and I'll show you.
OK.

The oat seeds are sent
to a giant kiln.

Up? That's where we go.
OK.

It's 30 metres up, above a furnace

heated entirely by waste
from the milling process.

This is like a great big windmill
going at an incredible speed.

Why is there such a delicious,
like, toasty,

nutty smell coming from there?

Well, that's because we're roasting
the oats with the shell on.

It's a flavour profile
that comes from that process.

And so that interaction of heat
between the amino acids

and the fatty oils is creating
that dark colour, rich texture

and nutty flavour.

The oats are roasted at
100 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.

Back to the ladder.

You really should have
a slide in here.

I would be so happy!

After a good roasting,
the skins, called husks,

are removed in a shelling machine,
which uses centrifugal force

to separate them
from the heavier seeds inside.

And what you're left with
is called a groat.

It's not the most
attractive of words, is it?

It's not the most, but...

What do you do with the groats?

So this is a table separator.

Woohoo!
Why are you shaking the groats?

So what we're doing here is,
we're identifying

whether or not the oat
has been shelled correctly.

Oats that still have their shells
are heavier than the unshelled

groats, so they fall
through the separator.

They're then returned to the
start of the process for another go

through the shelling machine.

Does absolutely everything oaty,
whether it be milk

or porridge or flapjacks...
It all starts with a groat?

Absolutely. All of our oat products
start with a groat.

To turn a groat into an oat,
they're sent to be rolled.

Jumbo oats, like Paddy's delivery,

are rolled straight
from this machine.

But the flapjack factory
also uses smaller oats,

and for that, the groats
need to be a finer texture.

So, Cherry, these are the groats.

Those are the groats, off they go!

Off they go!
Where are the groats going?

So they're going into this machine,
which is called a pinhead cutter.

That doesn't sound good
for the groat.

They're getting chopped.

So how fine are they
getting chopped?

So they're typically chopped
into two or three parts.

And how do you chop them?

So this is it here.

Woohoo!

So they're coming in here...

Coming in here, and they're sitting
into the wheel, and the wheel

is adjusted by a blade and it's
chopping it as it passes through.

The chopped groats travel through
a steamer, which cooks them

at 100 degrees Celsius to make them

flexible for the
one metre wide roller.

Then, at the rate of 3.5 tonnes
an hour,

the groats emerge
as perfectly rolled oats.

Oh, look, there they are.

They're lovely and flat.

They're kind of like the oats
that I recognise.

Why are you blowing them about?

So we've had to put steam
so we can roll them.

Now what we're doing is using
air to extract some of the moisture

that we've applied
earlier in the cooking stage.

But why do you flatten them?
Why do you bother rolling them?

So the whole purpose of rolling
means that they can cook

a lot more quickly. OK.

Makes it easier, more convenient,
more consistent.

It just means that when you're
at home making your breakfast,

it's ready in 2 minutes
rather than 20.

So this is the finished product.

This is it?
This is it.

You don't add anything?
That's it.

Just oats in oats?
Just oats.

Oats are oats.

In one week here, they can
prepare 300 tonnes of oats.

That's enough for seven million
bowls of porridge

or 15 million flapjacks.

Oh! What a beautiful sight.

It's like a snowstorm of oats.

There's something very beautiful
about their simplicity.

Just a bit of roasting
and squishing.

All we need is some milk and some
golden syrup, and we're done.

That's all you need.
OK.

Oh, we've no time
for porridge, Cherry.

I'm cracking on with flapjacks.

Love that.

My delivery of oats has been shifted
from the intake bay to the bakery.

And amidst this hive of activity,
I'm meeting head of food

Eleanor McClelland.

Hello, El. Hi, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.

Welcome to our bakery.

This is where we make
all of our flapjacks.

We start off here with our
weighing station, where we

weigh all of our ingredients out.

Like, if you were making
a flapjack at home,

that's where you'd start,
getting all your ingredients ready.

Do you know, this feels
like the hub to me.

Because sometimes you can go
in places, you don't really see

many people, cos it's automated,

but there's loads of people in here,
which is always good.

I've noticed these oats about.

Are they all jumbo oats?

So we actually use a combination of
oats. We use two different sizes.

So we use the jumbo
and we use the small oats.

So the small oats bind the product
together really well.

They give it that
kind of soft chewy texture. Yeah.

But if you use just small oats,
then it would probably end up

being quite stodgy and
quite sticky and a bit dense.

So jumbo oats help bring the
texture a little bit of bite,

and also a really nice visual look
to the final product.

El's team has already weighed
out the jumbo oats.

Now it's my turn
with the small ones.

Are you feeling strong?
Stand back, El!

The oats may be petite,

but each of these massive bags
weighs a whopping 25 kilos.

Right, there we are.
That's that.

Let me...

Oh, this is awkward.

Stanley would have been handy here.

Are you sure that's the right way?

Give it some welly.

That can't be right.
It's the special technique.

Oh, there we are.
You've got it. You've got it.

Wheel it forward a bit.
That's it.

There we go.
Perfect!

Oh, in we go. Look at that.

That's a lot of oats.

Plenty there, in't there? Great.

Top tip. Get a sharp knife.

Unbelievable.

HE LAUGHS

I'm not getting on well here.

There. How's that?

It's good enough.

It's fine.
It'll be all right, won't it?

Luckily, the scales to weigh
the oats are far more high-tech.

This is our weighing screen.

It's like an electronic
cookery book.

So now it's telling us

that for these small oats,
we need 11kg in here.

So quite a lot.

What will that equate to?

The full stack of dry ingredients
makes 2,600 of the flapjacks.

My word!

It's really important at this point
to get this accurate,

cos we've got to make sure we've
got the right blend of ingredients.

If we don't get this right now,

then the product
won't taste right at the end.

All right, El, no pressure.

I've only got several thousand
flapjacks to ruin.

I tell you what,
we need quite a bit here.

I know, yeah.
I'm going to try that full scoop.

Let's try that.

Oh!
So close.

I tell you what, I see a Saturday
night game show in this.

This is quality.

Oh, come on.

Oh!
So close.

Come here, you little rascal.

There we go, good.

Done it.
Nailed it.

I'm sweating.

Next ingredient is our dates.

Critical ingredient when you're
making a sticky toffee pudding.

Of course they are.
Really important.

They bring that kind of
natural toffee flavour.

Can I try one of them?
Go for it.

Oh, that's a lovely date.

So we're ready to weigh these now.

Pop it on here...

Sorry, I don't want to rush you!

Let me enjoy that, El.

It's been a while, let me tell you.

What weight is this, El?

So we've got 3.499 kilos,
very specific, here. My word!

Really important to get
the right amount of dates.

I struggled with 11.

Dates are the fruit
of the date palm tree.

And they arrive at the factory
dried and ready-chopped,

which should make it easier
for some precise weighing.

Too many dates, it's going to be too
soft, it's going to be too sticky.

So we try 50, 60, 100 versions
of a recipe to make sure we've got

the right balance of flavours
and ingredients.

I am available for taste testing...
OK, good to know.

We can send some in the post.
..if you ever need anyone,

and I've got a very
discerning palate.

Oh, here we go. We're getting
close. We're getting there now

I've never known pressure like it.

499.
499.

Come on.
There you go, that's it.

Are we happy with that?
Yeah, we're happy.

I'll just test one more of them.

Just to check they're good.

Yeah, that's a date.

So we've done all of our
dry ingredients,

so now we have to go
and weigh our wet ingredients.

All right, I'll follow you.
Go on.

Follow me, let's go.

Just realised,
I've eaten quite a lot of dates

and the toilet's quite far away.

So...

Going to be in a little
trouble today.

So far,
I've won the weighing challenge

and had the best date of the year.

And now me and El are halfway
to sticky toffee heaven.

So, what's next?

So this is where we do our weighing
of our wet ingredients.

These are big old drums, these,
aren't they?

So what have we got here, then, El?

So we start with our golden syrup.
Classic.

Golden syrup, first name on the team
sheet. Exactly.

Really important ingredient for us,
helps bind everything together.

It also doesn't crystallise
after the product's baked,

so it gives that moist texture
even after you've baked it,

so it's not dry or brittle.

How do you keep that consistency?

Cos I'm at home and I'm
getting a bit of golden syrup

out of tin, it's always a bit hard
or it won't come out. Yeah.

So we put the syrup
onto, like, a heat mat,

a bit like underfloor heating,
if you imagine.

Keeps that nice and warm,

means that when we get it out of the
tank, it's nice and free-flowing.

So it just keeps the consistency,
but it's not actually bubbling?

Exactly, yeah,
like a very gentle heat.

Yeah, exactly.

Keeping the golden syrup warm
and free-flowing

makes it easier to
weigh out the exact amount

from my batch of more than
2,500 sticky toffee beauties.

Can I have a little sample?
Absolutely.

We've got some for you here.

You came prepared.
Do not ask me where I kept that,

but I've been waiting
to use this all day.

Now's your chance.
Here we go.

Oh.

I do apologise, El, but this
happens.

That is so gorgeous.

Coats your mouth,
but not in a claggy way.

It's so smooth. A little bit
of nuttiness in there as well.

But that flavour when it hits you...
Absolutely. ..it's just dreamland.

And you can't make a good flapjack
without golden syrup. Oh!

Oh!

So next we've got our treacle.

You can't make a delicious sticky
toffee pudding without using

black treacle, so that's why
we use it in our flapjack to give it

that cooked caramel notes that you
would expect from a sticky toffee.

Where does it come from?

The black treacle comes from
cane molasses, which is

actually a by-product
of sugar production.

They evaporate it using heat
to refine it down.

Black treacle, I've got to say,
that's a great name for a rock band.

I'm all over that.

And so you can see it looks quite
different to the golden syrup.

Much, much darker.

It's got a more intense aroma.
Oh, yeah, that's very powerful.

And a little goes a long way.

This has got a slight
bitterness to it,

but, I mean, have a try
and see what you think.

I'm not going to go as mad as I did
with the golden syrup. No.

Wow!

Wowsers!

Put hairs on your chest.

My God, that's intense!
It is.

How much of that goes in?
Because that is really, really...

Yeah, not much.

You only need a few percent
in the recipe.

It's lovely,
it leaves a nice aftertaste.

But that first spoonful...
I know.

What I'll need to do here
is just get another little bit

of golden syrup...
To wash it down?

..just to wash it down.

To coin a phrase, I'm going
to need a bigger spoon.

Honestly, I just want to
hang about round here all day.

And while I snaffle the samples,

Ruth's finding out that the history
of syrup

hasn't always been sweetness
and light.

20 miles east of Paddy's flapjack
factory is Silvertown,

in London's famous Docklands.

This now quiet stretch of the river
was once a thriving port.

Every available bend in the river
was put to use,

and thousands of ships, boats
and wherries plied their trade,

bringing millions of tonnes of cargo
from all around the world.

One product in particular
gave this area a sweet reputation.

By 1870, 650,000 tonnes of raw cane
sugar was being imported from

mills overseas,
giving this area of the docks

its nickname, Sugar Mile.

And two names came to dominate
the sugar business -

Tate and Lyle.

Their names may now be
inextricably linked,

but once upon a time,
Henry Tate and Abram Lyle

were the fiercest of rivals.

To find out how these competing
empires came together,

I'm meeting Tate & Lyle's
Claire Crill.

Wow, this is sugar?

We're just looking
at a mountain of sugar?

This is raw cane sugar.

And there's about 40,000 tonnes
of raw cane sugar in this

shed at the moment.

So this sugar has come in
from Australia and Fiji.

It's this raw material that makes
all of our sugar and syrups.

Raw cane sugar,
like these huge mountains,

is brown in colour as it contains
molasses and impurities.

To make white sugar, they're removed
during a process called refining,

in huge factories
or sugar cane refineries,

like this one,
built by Henry Tate in 1878.

So who exactly was Henry Tate?

So, Henry Tate was a
grocer-turned-sugar-refiner

and he changed the way that sugar
was sold, with these - sugar cubes.

So, there were no cubes before?

There were no cubes before.

Before cubes, sugar was sold
in these cones called loaves.

And grocers would kind of chip
some of the sugar off using

what we called nippers.

It was very messy.

It was very inconvenient.

So the advantage of a sugar cube
was that it was pre-weighed.

And as you can see,
they're in a cube shape

and therefore stackable
and easy to transport.

Cones and cubes were both made
by compressing refined sugar

into moulds, but Henry Tate's
cubes were revolutionary

and made him a fortune.

However, his success
brought competition.

We're heading to the other end
of Sugar Mile, where another

sugar magnate would create a product
to rival Tate's invention.

So this is Abram Lyle, and he built
his cane refinery in 1882.

So almost next door to Tate,
just on the same river bank?

Exactly. Five years later,
and a mile up the river. Mm.

SHE LAUGHS

So originally, Abram Lyle built
his factory to be a cane refiner,

just like Henry Tate.

The year after his factory was
finished, there was a global

sugar shortage, which caused
prices to dramatically increase.

And so Abram Lyle sent his
scientists off to try and work out

how they could make the most value
out of every granule of sugar.

And they worked out that the
molasses by-product of cane refining

could actually be turned
into a very sweet syrup,

and Lyle's golden syrup was born.

The thick, sticky liquid
was like no product before,

so Lyle had to create
a whole new market.

Originally, it was sold in wooden
casks to employees and local

East London residents, and, really,
it was marketed as a cheap spread

for your bread instead of butter,

which was very expensive
at that time. Or jam. Yeah, or jam.

But word spread about how tasty
it was, so volume increased,

and then it went from being
served in a wooden cask

to dispensed in something like this.
Oh, this is great!

So you'd go into your local shop
and there'd be...

You'd go to your grocer
and you could open it,

and the syrup would be poured out
there into whatever...

Bring your own container.
Exactly.

Early refills.

In 1885, Lyle started selling
golden syrup in the familiar

green and gold tins.

And within a decade, they were
selling 200 tonnes of it every week.

SHE LAUGHS

Oh! Oh, this is great.

With their massive factories
squaring off

at each end of the Sugar Mile,
Henry Tate and Abram Lyle

were locked in a contest for
Britain's sweet tooth.

So these days when we talk
about Tate and Lyle,

it's always together, Tate & Lyle.
It's true.

So they were bitter rivals
during their lifetime.

There are rumours that they
never really spoke, that they

even went as far as sitting on
different carriages on the same

train from Fenchurch Street to the
East End, to their refineries.

But shortly after their deaths,
discussions started

between their two families
about merging the two businesses.

It was all down to the impact
of the First World War.

Attacks on the ships
that supplied Britain with sugar

devastated the industry.

So to ensure their survival,
the two firms merged in 1921.

This coming together created
a business behemoth which

produced a staggering 50%
of all refined sugar in Britain

at the time, as well as Lyle's
signature product, of course.

So we make 250,000 Lyle's
Golden Syrup tins here every week,

all to the exact same recipe
as in 1885.

Wow!
And the tin hasn't changed?

No, the tin is exactly the same.

Little could Abram Lyle have
imagined that 140 years later,

his creation would look
and taste the same,

and all with the help
of his greatest rival.

I wonder if the syrup factory
is looking for taste testers?

Back at my factory, I'm all about
the sticky toffee flapjacks.

I'm 1 hour and 30 minutes in,

and my gorgeous golden syrup
has been joined by dark treacle.

And we've got vegetable oil
to bind the dry ingredients

and keep the flapjack moist
when it's baked.

And now it's time for the
great sticky toffee mix-off.

So we've weighed all of
our wet ingredients now.

The only slight challenge
is that we've got water-based

ingredients like these two.

We've also got
oil-based ingredients.

So we've got to go and see
how we combine them all.

Let's do it.

For the perfect sweet
and chewy flapjack,

we need to mix this lot together.

And that's where this shiny
bit of kit comes in.

In our vessel here,
it's got a shear head, which is

a bit like a stick blender
that you'd use at home.

It's got blades,
so when it's in here,

all of our lovely ingredients
are well mixed together.

So that means we get a really nice,
consistent product.

But getting that perfect mix isn't
easy with our fatty oil-based

ingredient and the syrups,
which are water-based.

Stand by for a demo.

Do you want to pour a bit
of the oil on top of there?

Oil in water...

Yeah, that one on. Yeah.

...do not like each other,
these two. No.

And you can see immediately,
the oil is sitting at the top.

Separated. Even if you tried to mix
it...

Oh, glad you said that.

I haven't got any more
of these spoons left.

Don't ask me to do anything else.
That's fine.

And then if we leave it,
it doesn't take long...

You can see already.

It's just not mixing, is it?
It separates.

But why?

The oil molecules
want to stick together

and the water molecules
want to stick together.

They don't want to combine
with each other. Yeah.

A bit like if you had two magnets

and you put the wrong ends together,
they pull apart.

And that's where
this vessel comes in.

The big blades break down the
molecules

and mean that they start
combining with each other.

First, the oil's poured into the
mixer and blended thoroughly,

followed by the treacle...

Oh, that is fantastic!

Oh, this is so good!

..and the golden syrup.

Do you know what?
That smells gorgeous.

Inside the vessel
is a small shear mixer.

The blades inside pull the
ingredients into the mixer head.

Then the liquids are forced
under high pressure

against the outer housing
of the mixer, called the stator.

The oil and water molecules are
broken down between the blade

and the stator, forming
similar-sized globules

which can blend together.

A natural additive derived from soya
beans then coats the molecules

to stop the mix from separating.

And that's all very clever indeed.

So this is all finished up now,
so we just need to open it up

and check everything's all mixed
together and really well combined.

If I can just pass that to you.
Oh, yeah, certainly.

Take it back there.

Oh, that smells good
in there, you know.

So we've got our massive ladle,
so you can see that's perfect,

nice, rich, dark colour.
Beautiful.

What I'm not seeing is
oil and water underneath, yeah.

It's really well mixed and combined.

Ready to go in with the dries.
Fantastic!

I've really got the urge
to have some chips and gravy. Yeah!

So I put the lid back on.
That's it. Perfect, thank you.

Keep that safe in there.
Let's go. Right.

Once it's perfectly combined,

the sweet oil and syrup mix
is held at 80 degrees Celsius.

It's then pumped along
pipework to the mixing area.

These enormous rotating drums
are called tumblers.

So, strictly speaking, I'd call this
the tumbling area.

So this is where we come to do our
final part of the mixing process.

First, in go our dry ingredients -

the oats, followed by the dates.

Do you know, I spent years in front
of a cement mixer on building sites

and this does take me back.

It's similar, isn't it? Yeah.
It's so similar.

Loading it up,
mixing it round, out it comes.

Exactly. It does the job.

The dates and oats
get a quick tumble

and then it's the moment
I've been waiting for.

In goes the treacly syrup mix,

our liquid gold.

I'm really looking
forward to seeing it.

I cannot wait for this to come out.

And just one minute later,
we've got flapjack mix.

Oh, there we go.

Oh, the smell when he lifts
that off as well is gorgeous.

Look at that!

But there's no hanging about.

Now we want to make sure that we can
get it quite quickly into the trays,

because as the mix cools down,
it gets harder and harder to spread.

So now we've got to get it
all into the trays as quickly

as possible to get it
through to the oven.

And it's surprising how
it's all kind of done by hand.

You know, you just presume
everything's done with machinery.

It's great to see.

We don't want to go
too heavy-handed.

And again, with the mixer,
you don't want to over-mix it.

We're not trying to make porridge.

You've got to keep that consistency
of the oats.

So for us doing it all by hand,

it's still feels like
a home-made flapjack.

Every tray is weighed to check
that we're not putting in too much

or too little.
What's the weight we want?

It's 2.70. Oh, look at that,
2.7.

Now, they do an initial spread
by hand just to try

and get it evenly across the tray.

Then he'll pass it on to Vita

and she'll start using her spatula
to spread it out and get a nice

smooth top, make sure it's even.

We use a height measurer to check

there's not really deep sections
and really shallow sections.

Oh, now, this is proper now.

Why is it important
to check all those depths?

Once it's baked,
it'll be cut into 81 flapjacks

and we want each of those pieces
to be consistent size.

You don't want some bits
that are really thin

and some bits that are thick.

Obviously
when it goes into the oven,

we want to make sure it's a nice,
even bake.

Do you want to have a go?

I certainly do. all right, OK.

Right, here you go.
All right.

Start with the hands.
That one? Yeah.

Yeah.

That's nice and warm, isn't it?

Oh, that's lovely.

While it's still warm. I can see
why you've got a smile on your face.

Right, there we are.

The old spreader.

Right, this way first.

That way out.

Come down.

Oh.

I'm under a bit of pressure here.

This way, down here?
This way. Come down. Yeah.

Each tray needs smoothing out
in less than 45 seconds

before it hardens.

I'm not as quick as you, Vita,
but I'm just trying to get it neat.

Turn your tray.
Turn the tray.

Vita's quite full-on with it.

I'm more gentle with my flapjacks,
but, you know...

All right.
Got to do the checks now.

Yeah.

Yes.

Ha, five yeses!

You're going through
to boot camp.

It takes Vita just 25 minutes to
fill 32 trays with my batch of mix.

Enough for more than
2,500 flapjacks.

Lovely stuff.

And next station is the oven.

Oh, right, OK.

Coming through!

Oh, yeah.

In they go.

So this is our big oven room.

The smell in here, it's beautiful,

but it's really strong
compared to being out there.

Yeah, so we've got three ovens
in here.

We put four trolleys in each one.

So when these are all full,

that's over 37,000 flapjacks
in all of our ovens.

Should we get that in?
Yeah, let's go.

The custom-built ovens were designed

to let the trolleys
wheel straight in...

So I'll let you do the honours.

Here we go.

..a crucial time saver to get
the flapjacks in to bake

as quickly as possible.

Let's close it up.

And it's ready to go.

That is mass baking.

Each of our ovens is on a rotating
plate, so you can see that

the trolleys are spinning round,
that makes sure that we get a really

nice, even bake across every single
tray and every single trolley.

You've seen how we've been quite
precise through the process,

making sure we get everything right
and accurate.

So the bake is really
the critical final step.

We want to make sure that we don't
bake it too hot or too quickly,

and we keep that lovely soft,
chewy texture.

But also we've got to bake it
long enough

so it doesn't crumble apart
when we pack it.

Now, all ovens have
what's known as hot spots.

It's usually hotter towards
the metal sides, top and bottom,

and that's why we often turn things
round in the oven

halfway through cooking.

This clever kit does the job
automatically, ensuring all

the flapjacks get that
crucial, even bake.

I love that, a rotisserie of oats.

Quite hypnotic, really,
looking through there,

just watching it gently
going around, baking away.

And I think the really important
part about all this process

is while that's baking,
we have a sit down and a cup of tea.

Come on, El, lead on.

And while we do that,
get ready for Ruth,

who's been finding out about
the history of another oaty treat.

She's in Staffordshire
in the West Midlands...

Oh, lovely pink wellies!

..on the trail of another
hearty snack.

I'm here to explore an unlikely
food hero that has been keeping

the people of this county
going for centuries.

The Staffordshire Oatcake.

It looks a bit like a pancake, made
from batter, typically containing

yeast and milk or water, but always
containing finely ground oats.

Alex Povey's family have been
selling oatcakes in Biddulph,

near Stoke-on-Trent, since 1994.

This is an amazing=looking machine.

And what is the difference
between a pancake and an oatcake?

Pancakes don't have oats in.

I'd say the oatcake is
more versatile, you know,

it could go on the side
of a full English breakfast,

or it could just be
a breakfast on its own.

It's cooked on a hot plate, commonly
called a baxton or bakestone,

as they were once baked on a
hot flat stone, heated on a fire.

Oat flour doesn't rise,
so it results in a hearty,

flat bread which warms the
cockles of its regular devotees.

Last night we had 'em for tea
with bacon, cheese, mushrooms,

the whole shebang. Lovely.

Nothing better.

Other parts of the country
don't eat them.

Are they missing out?

They're missing out on all this
lovely happiness...

SHE LAUGHS

When people do buffets
in Stoke-on-Trent,

you've always got cold
oat cakes on them.

It's a very traditional thing.

To find out how this oaty staple
became a Staffordshire institution,

I've enlisted the help
of food historian

Dr Mukta Das.

Hello, hello, hello!

We're meeting outside
Middleport Pottery,

one of the historic factories that
made Stoke-on-Trent world famous.

This whole region is called
the Potteries

because a lot of pottery
was made here.

And their industry

and their work was fuelled
by the Staffordshire Oatcake.

OK.

It was so fit for purpose.

It was cheap, it was fast,
it was fresh and it was...

Well, filling, I suppose.
Absolutely.

Oats have been grown
in the moorlands around Stoke

for hundreds of years.

Compared to wheat,
they could tolerate rain,

wind and short summers,
so it was the perfect cheap crop

in the 18th century for rural
labourers to make oat flour pancakes

cooked on bake stones
in farmhouses across the Pennines.

So this is genuine real
working people's food?

Absolutely.
But need the nutrition,

need the protein to sort of drive
their industry, drive their labour.

So how does this move from being
a rural tradition into being

such an urban thing?

So the potteries industry sucked
in tens of thousands of farmers

and agricultural workers from
the surrounding regions

right here to work
in these factories.

And so as they came, they brought
in the oatcakes with them.

By the beginning
of the 20th century,

micro-businesses selling oatcakes
had popped up

in and around Stoke-on-Trent,
with people working from their

Victorian terraced houses in the
streets near the busy factories.

Somebody's front room
turned into a production kitchen,

and a husband-and-wife team
would basically then sell oat cakes

from a window such as this.

Selling oat cakes
out of their domestic windows?

Absolutely.

So these were known
as hole-in-the-walls.

As you can see.

Yeah, OK, I get that,
a hole in the wall.

I mean, that really is just
somebody's front window, isn't it?

I mean, there's an awning outside,
but that's it.

It is just somebody's front window.
Absolutely.

To find out more about
these unusual shops,

I'm meeting Sue and Glenn Fowler.

Hello.

Well, this is cosy, isn't it?

So you two used to operate
a hole in the wall?

The Hole in the Wall Oat Cake Shop.

We bought it in 1981,
and we succeeded for 30 years.

A lot of locals used to come to us.

We had them queuing all
the way down the road and back.

We used to have a
lot of chatting going on.

We knew everybody's business.

Everybody's!

I have a little surprise
for the Fowlers...

What do you think about this?

..an archive film from 1984.

Oh, that's us.

So this is you? Yeah.

That's us there.

Yeah.

"Let us pay homage to the oatcake,

"or ootcake or wood cake,

"as the old men called them."

There you are, that's you.
That's me. That's you there.

And that's Glenn doing the mixes.

Look how perfect that oat cake is.

Well, I could just eat one of those.

This is a gentleman coming for his
breakfast,

by the looks of it, there.

Down there, duck.
How many, Jim?

Six, duck.
Lovely to watch that.

Yeah, I think we'll
have to have 'em for tea now.

Oh, yeah!

In the last quarter
of the 20th century,

many potteries were forced to close,
unable to compete with cheap imports

from abroad,
and more than 32,000 jobs were lost.

Home businesses like these were
a casualty of the area's decline.

Glenn and Sue's Hole in the Wall
was the last to close in 2012.

But thankfully,
oatcakes are thriving once more,

with new businesses focusing on
takeaways and home deliveries.

Any sauces on any of them? OK.

Be about 10, 15 minutes.

Oho!

One cheese and mushroom double.
Thank you very much.

Enjoy!

That is good.

Mm.

Now, those look good enough
to make your mouth water.

Anyone fancy a trip to Stoke?

But first, I'm 4 hours and 15
minutes into flapjack production,

and it's time to see how my sweet
and sticky treats are getting on.

Am I this week's star baker
or the flapjack flop?

So they've finished baking now,
ready to get out of the oven.

Lovely.

Whoa, El, just hang on a minute,
I've always wanted to do this.

Here's one I baked earlier.

Oh, ho-ho! My word!

Out you come.
These look amazing.

So, through to the cooling room now.

OK, El, this is it.

My show stoppers are coming
through.

Someone shut that oven door.

Oh, perfect.

Look at that.

Golden brown,
packed full of dates and oats

and smelling like a party
in a syrup factory.

These are the flapjacks
of my dreams.

But they're not quite ready
to meet their public just yet.

So this is our cooling room, where
everything comes once it's baked.

So we have a special air circulation
system in this room.

It basically pumps in
room temperature air

every six minutes,
and it draws out the hot air.

So we keep the air flowing.

We've got gaps between each
of our trolleys to help cool down

the product to room temperature
in a really efficient way.

It's like if you were baking at home
and you were to take

something out of the oven,
you'd leave it on a cooling tray.

It's a similar system here.

Why do you not want to cool them
too quickly?

Because if you cool them
too quickly,

then you don't get that lovely
soft texture, which is what we want.

Oh.

It'll take a couple of hours
for this lot to cool down

from an oven-hot 125 degrees Celsius

to under 35 degrees Celsius.

And as they cool,

the flapjacks firm up as
some of the sugar crystallises,

but the gooey syrups stop them
setting too hard and going brittle.

And this is where I'm
parting company with El.

Let's do a fist bump.
Thank you. Look at that.

For the kids.
All right. See you later.

Bye!
Look after them flapjacks.

After chill-out time for the
flapjacks and a couple of brews

for me, I'm wheeling the trolleys
to the next stage

of the flapjack journey.

We're heading from the cooling room
to the packing hall,

where I'm meeting up with Tim again.

Good to see you, Tim.

Bit of sticky toffee goodness here.

Baked and cooled to perfection, sir.

Welcome to our cutting
and packing room.

Some set-up, this. Yeah.

So this was specially designed
to deal with the kind of sticky,

oaty flapjacks that we have.

I'm a little bit obsessed
by those cutting arms there.

Can I have a closer look?
Absolutely. Come on over.

First thing I've noticed is there's
no cutting marks on that blue mat.

It kind of just gets it
exactly spot-on.

So, Paddy, the special thing about
these blades is they're ultrasonic.

So they're vibrating really
small amounts up and down

at 20,000 times a second.

And that means it doesn't actually
have to go all the way

onto the belt to get a really nice,
clean cut through.

So as I'm looking at that now,
that is vibrating?

Exactly.

That is mind-blowing,

cos no matter how close I look
at that, that looks totally still.

It will do.

You can't see any of those movements
in the naked eye.

Using a conventional knife to cut
the soft flapjacks could mean

they crumble or get squashed
out of shape.

First, the ultrasonic blade
slices the giant flapjack

in nine strips, spreading them
as it goes.

A second blade
cuts each strip into nine.

The crisscross cuts
create 81 identical flapjacks,

each a uniform
four centimetres by five.

Look at that!

It'll take just 11 minutes
for my batch of 2,600 flapjacks

to pass through the cutting
machines, and I reckon...

Oh, ho-ho ho-ho!

..it's high time
I put one to the test.

This is fresh off
the production line.

Absolutely.

So you're looking for that
really soft texture.

Yeah?

Hang on, Tim.

That's so good.

Do you know what's nice?

That sticky toffee with the dates
really comes through.

A little bit harder on the top,

which is what you want,
nice and soft underneath.

And what I like about these,
which is a test I do

with all my little treats,
the old shiny fingers.

Yep!

That is the sign of a good snack,
if your fingers are shiny...

What a treat!

Oh!

I could spend all day
just eating these.

What's the next bit, Tim?

We need to go to packing.
Let's get them wrapped.

So, they're ready?
Ready. Whoa.

Off you go.

Straight from the cutting line,
the flapjacks travel under

a row aligner, which uses
laser sensors to space the rolls.

Then a pusher arm nudges them
onto the packing line.

Here, they pass on to a faster
moving conveyor belt,

which spaces them out again.

Look at them go.

Ah! So, Paddy, what we've got here
is a visual inspection system

that's got a laser beam that checks
exactly the dimensions

and the orientation of the flapjack,
so they're ready for wrapping.

So if it goes in on
the wrong orientation,

a compressed air jet
fires it off the line.

It therefore
doesn't make its way downstream.

Right, OK, so do you mind
if I test this theory?

Absolutely.

The flapjacks aren't
perfect squares,

so they need to be facing the right
way round when they're wrapped.

But at this rate, it's almost
impossible to see with the naked eye

if any of them are on sideways.

So I'll pop that on the wrong way.

There's a gap. Go on.

Get off! Love it.

Doesn't mess about, does it?

There's just enough pressure in the
tiny blast of compressed air...

Wahey!

..to shoot the sideways flapjacks
off the line without breaking them.

Oh, there's another one.

They are then sent back
to the start of the line

and get another
go at passing the test.

And when they're all pointing
the right way,

it's on to the next stage.

Now, Paddy, this is our wrapping
machine.

At this point here we've got
a forming shoulder which takes

that film
and forms a tube around the product.

What's that giant nail brush for?

The brush keeps
the film from kind of wrinkling.

It's really important that we get
a really tight seal, and if

we've got wrinkles in those seals,

then that product
doesn't stay so fresh.

And then the film is sealed
together with three

sets of rollers at the bottom here,
that form that heated seal.

These jaws at the end of the line
are doing three things at once.

They're sealing
the end of the first package.

They're cutting
the distance between the two,

and then they're sealing
the front of the next package.

And how many rascals are being cut
and sealed every hour?

We're doing about 15,000 every hour.
Wow.

Clever wrap-around
cartoning machines

take four flapjacks at a time
and assemble a box around them.

Now, it's the oats in these
flapjacks that I've always

thought was a pretty
healthy thing to eat.

But am I right, Cherry?

Yes, Paddy, you are bang-on.

We all know that oats are
super-tasty in porridge

and flapjacks,
and they're healthy too.

But what I didn't realise is that
they may also be great for your gut.

I'm at the University of Reading,
heading to the Food

and Nutritional Sciences department,

where they're researching foods
that can benefit our gut health.

Associate Professor of Gut
Microbiology is Dr Gemma Walton.

Gemma, you must introduce me
to your friend.

This is Hannah. Hannah!

Gemma, when we talk about the gut,
what do we actually mean?

So, most people will refer to the
intestines as the gut.

The gastrointestinal tract is
technically mouth to anus,

so all the way.

So entrance to exit?

Yes, exactly.

My research I focus more
specifically on the large

intestine, this region here.

And that's because we've got
billions of bacteria.

But most of the bacteria

that we have are housed in
our large intestine.

That's what I'm interested in,
the bacteria and what they do

and how they affect our health.

The billions of microorganisms
in the gut that include positive

or friendly bacteria is known
collectively as our gut microbiota.

If we looked at all the bacteria
we have in our large intestine,

they'd weigh about 400g, typically.

So that's about the weight of that.

That's really heavy. Yeah.

So we are essentially just
a walking hotel for bacteria.

That's how I think of us.

So are there different
types of bacteria?

Absolutely. If we have a look at
this, they're really active.

So the microorganisms
that are in us,

they're actually
breaking down undigested foods,

and by doing that they're
producing these things

we know as short chain fatty acids.

These are created as the bacteria
ferments fibre in our gut.

And they're proven to have
a positive effect on digestion

and our overall wellbeing.

How much do they affect our health?

They very much affect our health.

It's estimated that 70% of the cells

of our immune system are found
within our guts.

So our friendly bacteria
are incredibly important

to how we fight infection
and how healthy we feel.

About 95% of our serotonin, which is
known as the happy hormone,

is produced within our guts.

How do we look after our bacteria?

The diet is the easiest way to look
after your gut bacteria.

Now, we've all seen
the adverts for probiotics,

which are things like fermented
yoghurts containing friendly

bacteria that claim to
improve our gut health.

But Gemma is studying something
called prebiotics.

A prebiotic is a food
that we can eat,

but it's not completely
digested by our own enzymes.

It gets down to our gut, and then
it's used by our gut bacteria,

and then you get
a boost in positive bacteria.

So, there are small amounts
in foods that we eat, bananas,

for example. Garlic. Onion.

What about oats? They like oats?

They've got fibre in them
and fibre is really important to us.

Fibre can actually
get down to our large intestine

and they become
food for the bacteria.

And Gemma has a special project
on the go that aims to show how

fibre-rich foods like oats could
help promote friendly bacteria.

Let me introduce you
to my gut model.

Wow.

Oh, wow.
SHE COUGHS

This is a model of the large
intestine.

This gut model is a lot smellier
than the last one.

It's designed to test how
beneficial different

foods could be for gut bacteria.

We've got the proximal,
transverse, and distal colon.

So that's the beginning of the large
intestine, that's the middle

of the large intestine and that's
the end of the large intestine.

Exactly. So this is a robo gut.

You could call it that.

To replicate the substance that
travels through the stomach

and into our large intestines,
the team takes a sample of human

faeces and mixes it with
a saltwater solution.

They then add it to the model,
which contains nutrients,

and then a test
substance like oat fibre.

So we're literally growing up
faecal bacteria in here

and giving them some food.

Carefully timed pumps slowly feed
the mixture through the three

stages of the robo gut
over a 48-hour period.

And just like in our human gut,
microorganisms like bacteria

feed on the fibre, creating products
like short chain acids and odour.

The more fibre passing through
the machine can lead to more good

bacteria producing short
chain fatty acids,

and the more of those there are,
the better.

And how did oats do?

Oats actually did really well.

So oats led to positive changes
in bacteria all the way through.

But obviously this is only a model,

so we do need to take it forward
into a human trial to confirm.

So when you're eating your flapjack
or you're eating your porridge,

what you're doing is giving your gut
bacteria the five-star treatment.

And that's really important.

That's what we're hoping for, yes.

Much obliged, Cherry.

In my sweet smelling factory

it's almost the end of the line...

Never grow tired of that.

Lovely stuff.

..as I'm following my flapjacks from
wrapping and packing to dispatch.

And what a massive place this is.

Here we go, Tim.

There they are.

Ready to go.

Look at the forks on that.

This is our sticky toffee flapjacks
being loaded onto our trailers,

ready to go into store.
How many pallets are on there?

There are 26 pallets on that lorry.
26 pallets. A lot of flapjacks.

And they're going out every single
day?

They're going out every day.

Load it on, pal. Load it on.

Each pallet holds 2,100 packs
of flapjacks.

Fantastic.

So, each lorry is carrying

a whopping 218,400 individual bars.

Keeping everyone satisfied with
the cups of teas, including me.

I used to work in a warehouse many
years ago, so it all comes

back to me, just telling people,
"You're doing a great job."

Right. Let's send 'em off, pal.

OK. Farewell, my loves!

There they go.

Lovely action on the door as well.
I like that.

And they're gone.

Lights out, all out.

Come on, Tim. Love a catchphrase.

Just ten hours after
we took delivery of the jumbo oats,

my sticky toffee
flapjacks are leaving the factory.

From here, they head out to be

scoffed from lunch boxes and

on tea breaks across the country,

with Londoners munching the most.

And it's no surprise to me

there are flapjack fans as far
away as the Orkney Islands.

So there you have it. It was great
seeing the team here,

getting hands-on making
the flapjacks

and introducing sticky
toffee pudding in the mix.

Who'd have thought it?

And that meant I could get
stuck in with the sticky stuff too.

That is so gorgeous.

Oh, that's lovely.

This is fresh
off the production line.

That's so good. I could spend
all day just eating these.

And it's given me
some ideas of me own.

What about an ice cream sundae one?

That would probably
melt in the packet.

Got to be summat.