Inside the Factory 10x3 - Oven Chips

Paddy McGuinness explores the secrets of the McCain factorynear Scarborough to reveal how it cuts, fries and freezes 80million chips a day. Today, he's following production of theirbest seller, the straight cut frozen Home Chips.Of course,when it comes to making chips, the main ingredient ispotatoes. And as Paddy steps out to the delivery yard, a lorryfull of 28 tonnes of them has just arrived. Welcoming in one ofup to 70 lorry loads that the factory receives a day isoperations manager Mike Hartnett. He tells Paddy that on theback of the lorry is a special variety of potato called‘Daisy', which is perfect for making chips. And on the backof one lorry are enough potatoes to make 1.7 million chips!Paddy can't quite get his head around the sheer numbersinvolved at this factory, and he's even more blown away whenMike tells him that it'll only take two hours to transform thisload of spuds into frozen chips!After passing a series ofrigorous tests to check they have the correct starch content,the potatoes snake their way through the enormous factory on aseries of conveyor belts. Half an hour into the process, Paddyis keen to find out more about Mike, asking him what condimenthe prefers on his chips. To his horror, Mike tells him brownsauce! Wishing he hadn't asked, Paddy follows Mike and thespuds through a series of washers which remove stones and soil.Then it's on to the peeler, where Paddy leaves ‘Brown SauceMike' behind and meets production director Ashley Bowsley. ToPaddy's amazement, Ashley tells him that they use an advancedsteam peeling method which ‘explodes' the skin off thepotato, minimising waste.The next important production step isanother hi-tech one. Instead of parboiling the potatoes tosoften them, as you might do at home, they travel through aPulsed Electric Field machine. Paddy learns that it sendselectric pulses into the water that the spuds travel through,which softens them ready for cutting into chips. He states,‘the amount of stuff what goes on with a humble chip in hereis amazing.' And it doesn't end there, as the spuds travelthrough a cutting machine at 60 miles per hour, flying througha series of blades which transform them into chips. The resultis spectacular, as Paddy sees 1.7 million chips cascade down achip waterfall every hour. Just 67 minutes into the productionprocess, he gets his hands on a chip.The freshly-cut chipstravel along huge conveyor belts from one hi-tech machine toanother, and Paddy and Ashley are hot on their heels. The nextprocess is another surprise: battering. Every chip is coated ina light batter, to create extra crispness after you've cookedthem in the oven at home. Then, the chips are sent through afryer, followed by a freezer and onto the vast packing hall,where Paddy's co-presenter Cherry is waiting for him. She'sdone a bit of genning up on the equipment and talks Paddythrough the complicated process of weighing out the chips andputting them into one-kilogram bags.Finally, the packed frozenchips snake their way towards the distribution area, whereAshley is waiting for Paddy and explains how an automatedsystem loads 26 pallets onto the back of a waiting lorry. Afterjust two hours, 1.7 million chips head out of the factory tobe enjoyed with everything from sausages and beans to pies andpasties.Elsewhere in the episode, Cherry delves into thescience behind malt vinegar production and heads to a farm inthe West Midlands which is busy harvesting potatoes for thechip factory, while historian Ruth Goodman tucks into theorigins of everyone's favourite seaside dish, fish and chips.