Inside the Factory 9x2 - Sliced Bread

In a nostalgic episode of Inside the Factory, new presenterPaddy McGuinness visits the Warburtons bread factory in hishometown of Bolton, where he once worked as a youngster morethan 30 years ago. At Warbies, as the locals call it, hecatches up with old friends and learns how the machines, ovensand conveyors he once cleaned enable the site to produce 1.4million loaves of bread every week.As a fitting return to thefactory, Paddy makes a grand entrance by driving a tanker offlour through the gates. As he manoevres his way to the intakearea, he reveals that he was a young boy of sixteen when heworked here - it was a Saturday job, cleaning out the massivebread-making machines. However, the machines didn't run onSaturdays, which means that he's going to see them in actionfor the first time! With a little trepidation, Paddy dons theobligatory hairnet and steps inside the factory to soak up thememories. But he can't hang around reminiscing - there's slicedwhite bread to be made.So, he heads back outside to where heleft his tanker full of flour. Head of Flour Stuart Jones tellshim that they receive three tanker loads each day, containinga total of 90 tonnes – enough to make 170,000 loaves ofbread. As the mix of British and Canadian flour is unloaded,Paddy heads back inside the factory, where he spots a familiarface - his old school friend Pete, who got him the Saturdayjob and still works at the factory.After a quick chinwag,Paddy heads to the dough-mixing area to meet someone with avery impressive title: Unbeatable Quality Manager, RachelBacon. Rachel tells Paddy that the key to making the best whitebread is air bubbles; inside each slice there are 13,000bubbles, which are all counted by computer. To make thedough, a mixer combines the flour with water and brine, alongwith yeast and a special ingredient called improver, whichhelps with the structure of the dough.After mixing for threeminutes, the dough is tipped out and chopped into 341 separatepieces, each one weighing 920 grams. Every one of these moundsof dough will go on to make a loaf. The dough travels through amachine, which relaxes the strands of gluten inside and allowsthem to fully form, holding in the thousands of bubbles.Next,the dough is flattened and rolled out again - a bit like aSwiss roll. Then it's chopped into four, turned 90 degrees andsquashed together again. This method is called cross panningand gives extra strength to the finished loaves. Paddy andRachel agree that it's an important process, as it means thatwhen you have a chip butty and want to roll the bread aroundthe chips, it won't break.Paddy's dough drops into tins andtravels towards a huge machine called a prover, where Paddymeets another expert, Manufacturing Excellence Manager JoannaWhitehurst. This massive, warm room is kept at between 37 and40 degrees Celsius, which is the perfect temperature for theyeast inside the dough to activate and feed on naturallyoccurring sugars - a process called fermentation. This releasescarbon dioxide gas, causing the bubbles in the dough to expandand the loaves to rise. Once risen, a lid is placed on top ofevery tray, which gives the loaves a distinctive flattop.After two hours and forty minutes in production, the tinsgo into the 32-metre-long oven. Paddy tells Joanna that when heworked at the factory, he used to clean the ovens - and theywere spotless! Twenty-one minutes after entering the oven, thebread is turned out of the tins, and the golden loaves streamalong the conveyor for Paddy to see and smell them in all theirglory.They are making sliced bread, so the slicing machinecreates 17 slices for every loaf, each one is 13.7 millimetresthick. Finally, they are wrapped in traditional-style waxedpaper, which helps to lock in the freshness. Paddy remembershis mother using the distinctive paper to wrap his sandwichesfor school.As he heads to dispatch, Paddy bumps into his oldmate Pete again. They reminisce about the old days at the breadfactory. Paddy remembers not being able to get out of bed inthe morning but having to walk to the factory in the cold andrain, ready to start his shift at 6.00am. Paddy watches as6,000 loaves are loaded into the back of a lorry; the factorydispatches 44 wagons every day.With the soundtrack of MPeople's 90s anthem Moving on Up blasting out, Paddy loads thefinal trolley of sliced white bread into the lorry. Elsewherein the episode, Cherry Healey visits the Dualit factory tolearn how they make toasters and visits a brewery turning wastebread into pints of beer, while historian Ruth Goodmandiscovers why white bread was banned during the Second WorldWar.