Food Unwrapped (2012) s11e02 Episode Script
Series 11, Episode 2
'When it comes to food, the world is our oyster.
' That's massive, eh? 'But how much do we really know about it?' Oh, jeez! 'We're boldly going on a global mission' This might be one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life.
.
.
travelling the Earth Do you want to be a maestro? Yes, I do.
Yes, I want that! 'Putting our taste buds on the line' Oh! '.
.
as we discover the extraordinary truth' Boom, that is '.
.
behind our everyday foods.
' Just like an meat machine.
No fat.
Meat.
COW MOOS Coming up, I'm in Italy, capturing the essence of Earl Grey tea.
Oh! I get my snout into the classic British porky pub snack.
Usually when I go to factories, they don't let me try anything.
This is great! I love pork scratchings.
And I'm in California getting to the very heart of jelly beans.
It really isa rainbow sea of beans.
A sea of beans.
First, Earl Grey.
Do you know the Earl Grey flavour comes from in tea? 'Honestly?' Yeah.
'No.
' 'The flavour?' Yeah, you know, it's got a special flavour.
It's a bit citrusy, it's a bit kind of floral.
What is the flavouring that gives it that funny taste? 'I wouldn't know, I'm afraid.
' It's weird, isn't it? 'Earl Grey is a blend which has been flavoured with the 'addition of oil of bergamot.
' What's a bergamot? 'I've Burger-what? Well, it does seem to be on the packet so I'm off to Italy to a region that grows an incredible 90% of the world's supply.
We touch down in Reggio, AKA the City of Bergamot, and it doesn't take me long to find some.
Look at this place.
So, we've got bergamot juice, bergamot figs, bergamot sweets.
This is so Italian.
Even it's in the pasta.
So, bergamot isn't just in our Earl Grey tea.
It seems you can bung it in almost anything.
But what is it, exactly? We drive an hour east to a bergamot field.
Just arrived at the plantation.
There's trees everywhere.
'But I'm wondering which part of these trees gives you bergamot.
'I've arranged to meet the owner, a fella called Fabio.
' I'm Jim.
Nice to see you.
Is this bergamot here? 'So, it's the fruit they use.
' When I look at it on the trees, it sort of looks like a funny-shaped lemon.
Can we cut one open and taste it? Wow, look at that.
It smells like a lemon.
But looks like an orange.
Ah! She's laughing as well! What can I say, very, very bitter.
So, how do you turn it into something so fragrant that you can put into tea to make Earl Grey? 'Fabio's factory processes 1000 crates of these bitter fruits 'each day.
' In they go.
'First, the bergamot are washed.
' So, what's happening here? It's like a great, big cheese grater.
Out they come! Wow, that looks so weird.
Tell me, why have you taken all the skin off? The pulp is used in marmalade, and the juice is sold all over Italy but the Earl Grey taste comes from the oil found in the peel.
Smells incredible.
It's starting to smell a bit like Earl Grey now.
Wow, that's incredible.
So, it really is liquid gold, then.
Can I drink? No? Too expensive.
One kilo costs over 200 quid.
So, why aren't we paying the earth for our Earl Grey? And how do they get an oil into the teabags? Back in the UK, I head to Burnley to see how a flavour manufacturer puts the bergamot bang in our bags.
How are you? I'm Tony.
Tony and his team supply tea manufacturers with flavouring.
But what do they do with the expensive bergamot oil to ensure affordable Earl Grey tea? We've got a combination of flavours with the bergamot oil to make an Earl Grey flavouring.
So, what would happen if you made your tea, then, just with bergamot? It'd be too expensive.
So, what you do, you actually blend a combination of the citrus flavours together with the bergamot.
And every tea manufacturer, do they have their own recipe when it comes to Earl Grey? Yes, everyone has individual recipes.
Right.
The more expensive the teabag, the more bergamot oil will be used.
The budget bags can contain no real bergamot at all, just a replica flavour made from cheaper citrus fruits.
So, once you've got all these oils, what happens next? I'll take you through to the second step.
They now need to transform this oily substance into something dry you can bung in a bag.
We're going to blend an Earl Grey emulsion together.
'To do this, they whizz up water with a binding agent.
'Then comes the all-important citrus oil concoction, 'including the bergamot oil.
' So, this emulsion we're making, how many teabags would it make? It will make approximately one million teabags.
A million teabags just from this? Yes.
Then it's poured into moulds and baked in a vacuum oven for over 22 hours until it's completely dried out.
Here's one he made earlier.
It's a million miles away from teabags right now, isn't it? 'It's then smashed up.
' That is so bizarre.
A bit like Breaking Bergamot, isn't it? Then these aromatic rocks are granulated.
That's what's going into the final teabag.
Wow, look at that, it's basically those granules.
So, there's not many of them in there, is it? You don't need a lot for that flavour.
What's inside an Early Grey teabag is simply bog-standard breakfast tea with a sprinkle of concentrated bergamot flavour.
So, can I taste one? Yes.
This will font color="#fff Very strong.
Ugh! That could go into 20-30 teabags.
Ugh! Coming up, I meet a gentleman who's in hot water with his bagless tea.
When it comes to tea, you're a bit of a nutty professor, aren't you? Because what are you doing? We're trying to get rid of the t Next, pork scratchings.
I'm trying to get to the bottom of something, right.
I bought some pork scratchings the other day, and I was looking at the back, and I always thought pork scratchings were a very British affair.
It says they're made in the UK "using EU pork rind.
" Why would we need to import different pigs? We've got loads of pigs, haven't we, in Britain? 'That's a good question, to be honest.
'I'll have to look into that for you.
' Do they have different pigs in Europe? Have they got more ski Why do you think they might go elsewhere for the skin? I really don't know.
I think crackling's the best thing that's ever happened to a pig.
'Is that what I can hear you eating?' It is, sorry.
'That's all right.
How is it?' They're delicious.
Porky goodness.
OINK! OINK! So, what are EU rinds, and why isn't the great British pub snack made from British pigs? To help me with this porky puzzle, this little piggy is off to a pork scratching factory in Wigan.
Hello, Dave.
What are you doing here? font color="#F David Openshaw has been in the business for 30 years and his family company produces up to 300,000 packets of scratchings every week.
So, looks like I've come to the right place.
So, when I look at the back of a packet of pork scratchings, it says, generally, "product of the EU.
" Why is it? We have a lot of pigs in Britain, why don't you use British pork? Come on, I'll show you.
'David's lined up a scratchings taste test, one with EU rinds, 'and the other British.
' It's what I'd expect from a pork scratching.
This is much harder to get through.
This is a lot chewier.
That's the Danish, that the English.
Is that right? That's correct.
Big difference.
Absolutely.
'So, it seems British rind just doesn't cut the mustard.
' So, it's all Danish? It's not all Danish, no.
Normally, if we can't get Danish, then we do go elsewhere for rind.
Normally, other parts of Europe.
So, that explains the puzzling packets.
EU rinds can be from any EU country but, in reality, 95% of pork scratchings in the UK are made from Danish rinds, and David imports up to 40 tonnes every week.
And what cut is this? This is shank.
That's the best cut for pork scratchings.
It's softer, it's got the right amount of fat on.
'The rinds are chopped in this gigantic guillotine, 'but I still don't get why Danish is best.
' So, what makes this so different, then, from British pigs? The Danes process their carcasses differently to everybody else.
In Denmark, they use state-of-the-art automated equipment to scorch their pigs in a huge furnace.
The hairless skin is then pummelled to tenderise the rind.
And, although other countries use a similar process, the Danes do it twice, and in vast volumes, processing up to 20,000 pigs every day.
Because of the volumes they're doing, and the way they're doing it, they can get that regular consistency of quality, fat thickness, and finished product.
So, ultimately, there's a lot more skin to go round? That's So, how do you turn 20 tonnes of pig skin into this appetising, meaty mouthful? You deep fry it for nearly 2 hours, of course.
Can I try it? You may.
Really? You certainly may.
Really good.
Usually when I go to factories, they don't let me try anything.
This is great! I love pork scratchings.
So, there you have it, the great British pork scratching is likely to be Danish.
Later, I find out how pig skin is giving some people a new lease of life.
With any luck, there it is.
That's amazing.
Next, jelly beans.
I'm in California with an urgent candied conundrum.
Now, on these ingredients here, there is no mention of gelatine.
So, what on earth is the jelly in my jelly bean? I'm heading towards the world's biggest jelly bean makers .
.
where I've got a private tour lined up with king of beans, Danny Williams.
Are you Kate? Yeah.
I'm Danny.
Lovely to meet you.
Confectionery has been Danny's raison d'etre for over 25 years.
Nets on, we head straight to the factory floor.
I'm getting a lot of interesting smells.
Yeah? font 'So, what's the jelly in the been?' This is where everything comes together.
This is your cornstarch, your sugar, your syrup and water after it's been cooked.
This is where we add all of the colour and the flavour.
So, at this stage, it looks gelatinous.
It does.
Is there any jelly in it? There is no jelly in it.
No gelatine? No gelatine.
So, the starch gives you that jelly consistency inside your bean.
So, it's not really a jelly bean.
I mean, really, strictly, it's a cornstarch bean.
I think "jelly bean" sounds a little better, right? Yeah, I'm with you on that one, Danny.
So, once they've flavoured and coloured the mixture, it's moulded into the bean shapes.
That done, they bunk up for the night in the drying room.
It's literally full of beans.
Yes.
Refreshed after a good night's rest, they're steamed and showered with sugar.
You can see the beans here.
Ooh! Look at those! They feel very, very squishy.
We haven't finished processing the bean.
You can see how they look like little raisins.
What flavour is this, Danny? I don't know.
Is it pear?/font It tastes like pear.
I think it's juicy pear.
We'll say it's juicy pear, anyway.
Coming up, how do you turn these soft white pellets into those familiar Technicolor beans? It's almost like a jelly bean launderette.
They look like giant washing machines.
Yeah.
Back to jelly beans.
I'm in California, discovering that they're a bit of a misnomer.
So it's not really a jelly bean.
Strictly, it's a cornstarch bean.
Er, I think jelly bean sounds a little better.
We've seen the beginnings of a bean, but what's next? This is what we call engrossing and she's putting layers of syrup and sugar onto the bean, and so the bean will actually get bigger.
It's almost like a jelly bean laundrette that we're at right now.
Sort of.
They look like giant washing machines.
font These beans are on a spin cycle for over two hours, all the while being doused in sugar and flavoured syrup.
You can see how much rounder they are and how much better they look.
They look like they've gotten fat.
They've plumped up and they're a little bit harder.
Yeah.
/ Butter popcorn.
I'm going to go with toasted marshmallow.
You've got to be right! They may be fully flavoured, but there's still a way to go till they hit the packets.
There's the bean buffing, bean embossing and bean blending.
Who knew the creation of these simple, little sweeties was Oh! It really isa rainbow sea of beans.
A sea of beans.
/f That is really quite something, isn't it? Amazing, isn't it How many beans have you got in here? We can make over 60 million beans in a day and this is the equivalent, probably, of about three to four days.
So that's the see of beans.
That's a quarter of a billion jelly beans, folks.
From kiwi to tutti-frutti and hot cinnamon to peach bellini, it's a fiesta of flavours.
And why are they just sitting here? Surely you want to be bagging these up and shipping them out.
We want to be bagging these, but we have to let them rest.
Depending on the amount of ingredients that we put into each bean determines how long it has to sit.
You can be somewhere, in the whole process, between eight and, let's say, 19 days.
Really? Yes.
I can't believe it takes that long to make a jelly bean.
Yea Oh, Danny, where have you been all my life? I'm telling you, sweet guy, right? Back to Earl Grey tea.
In Italy, I discovered that the distinctive taste comes from the oil of the bergamot, but it's expensive stuff, so most of our brews contain a naturally derived replica.
Wow, look at that! So there's not many of them in there, is there? You don't need a lot for that flavour.
Now I've worked out the contents of an Earl Grey tea bag, it seems the bag itself is under threat.
We've come across a tea entrepreneur who is causing quite a stir on social media with his plans to bin the bag.
Just the idea of doing away with the humble tea bag and having tea out of a can has enraged so many people.
I'm not convinced either, but I want to see if this guy really deserves all this Twitter hype.
96% of all the tea drunk in Britain is brewed from a bag, so is this just a storm in a teacup? I've come to Surrey to pay Guy Woodall a visit.
Hope he's got the kettle on.
Hi, there, I'm Jim.
Hi, Jimmy, I'm Guy.
font color= I'm here for a cup of tea.
Right, let's go.
Guy has been brewing away in his barn for some time.
When it comes to tea, you're a bit of a nutty professor, aren't you? Cos what are you doing? Tea bags are a compromise, as far as I'm concerned.
They give you a low-quality cup of tea with a nasty, soggy tea bag to get rid of at the end of it.
How are you going to make the tea? We're going to use normal loose-leaf tea, proper tea, a nice bit of Earl Grey, and so what we're going to do is exactly what you would do in a teapot, except we're going to make it about 30 or 40 times more strong.
Once we've made our super-strong brew, it goes through a press.
Oh, look at this! Here it comes! That's super-strong.
You'd be able to stand your spoon up in that tea.
Guy makes 100 litres of this mega-brew for each batch of instant tea, which is then filtered in this cauldron to remove any lingering tea leaves.
Once the tea is filtered, what happens next? Next stage is to can it.
You can the tea? We put it into aerosol cans.
This is the bit I want to see.
Shall I show it to you? Yeah, do it.
The pasteurised tea goes into sterile, sealed aerosol cans so there's no need for chemical preservatives.
I'm quite sceptical if instant tea can be as good as fresh tea.
font color="#FFFF0 Do you want to have a brew-off? OK.
'While I pop the bags in the pot and wait for my brew' Tea bag's in there.
'.
.
it's just a quick squirt from Guy and then hot water.
Instant tea.
' And that's done? I'm done.
For me, it's a three-minute wait and I'm ready.
My grandfather used to be a tea-taster, so I can't mess this up.
Let the blind taste test commence.
This one first.
'Now, as tea-tasting runs in my family, 'surely an instant tea in a can 'will fail to impress my discerning palate.
'But which one is it?' That's all right.
Cuppa number two Oh, that's a good cup of tea! That's the tea I like.
Terrific.
Was that your tea? That was my tea.
That has come out of an aerosol can? Yep.
That tea dances on your tongue, doesn't it? Yeah, that's blown me away.
'Well, I never.
'But at three times the cost of an average cup of Earl Grey, 'doing away with the bag will cost you.
' Back to pork scratchings.
Now, it turns out the British pub classic isn't as British as we thought.
That's the Danish, that's the English.
Is that right? That's correct.
Big difference.
It seems the Danes do a better line of rind.
But I've heard about another rather unexpected purpose for pigskin at the Elective Orthopaedic Centre in Epsom.
I've arranged to meet surgeon Duncan Tennent and his patient, Peter Tricot.
Duncan Tennent.
Nice to meet you, Duncan.
How are you feeling OK.
Raring to go? Raring to go, You want to get on with it? Yep.
Stop talking to me? OK, excellent.
I'll leave you to it.
I'll see you in there.
Peter has serious shoulder trouble.
He has a severely torn rotator cuff and several previous ops have failed.
Explain a little bit about what you're going to do.
The rotator cuff is four muscles that hold the shoulder joint together and then there's a supraspinatus tendon.
OK.
Unfortunately, in Peter's case, the tendon has torn.
When you're missing the supraspinatus, the shoulder then slides up and down and doesn't really function.
font color="#fff That's what's causing the pain and the fact that he can't lift his arm up at all, so what we're going to do today is replace the tendon with a pigskin graft, so it's basically a scaffold and, over time, Peter's own cells will grow into the scaffold so, ultimately, this will disappear to be replaced seamlessly Really? .
.
with Peter's own tissues.
Wow.
This whole extraordinary operation is done using keyhole surgery.
First, the damaged tissue is removed.
There's a hole going right through the tendon there, so all of this is just rubbish.
This is the bone where the tendon should be attached.
Once the shoulder joint has been prepped, it's time to see this stuff in action.
So is that it? That's it.
Wow.
That originates from pigskin? That's pigskin, yeah.
It's custom-tailored to Peter's shoulder joint.
So this is the actual skin.
That is tough.
From a strength point of view, that's fantastic.
Yeah.
/font Am I right in thinking that that's the little holes for their hair? INDISTINC Yeah.
'Mr Tennent then skilfully feeds the skin strip into Peter's shoulder.
'Pigs have been our organ donors for over a decade, mainly because 'their biology is similar to ours 'and the supply is readily available.
' There it is.
There we go.
That's amazing.
It's secured with a few stitches and Bob's your uncle - a brand-new tendon.
Before this type of surgery came along, what would the rest of Peter's life be like? Really bad.
/fo He would have had to go on with the pain and not being able to lift his arms? Forever, whereas this operation has given us a whole new option.
font color="#fffff I'm happy.
Happy? That's it.
In just one hour, this amazing procedure is over.
Fingers crossed for him.
All his other muscles look good.
Yeah.
Cartilage looks good.
Right.
So he's taking all the boxes.
Right.
Amazing.
So you're happy? I'm very happy with it.
Well, who would have thought? From pork scratchings to pioneering orthopaedic surgery.
We've heard from Peter and he is recovering well.
He's confident that the op will give him back a fully functioning shoulder joint.
'Next time, I'm in Thailand to find out what's so fishy about this veg.
' How do you turn this into a prawn cracker? 'I shake things up with the truth about salt.
' 16.
That's a big surprise.
That's a lot of salt.
You'd be able to float in it! 'And I'm getting down with the herbs.
' That's amazing.
This has moved on a lot since I was growing cress when I was a kid.
' That's massive, eh? 'But how much do we really know about it?' Oh, jeez! 'We're boldly going on a global mission' This might be one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life.
.
.
travelling the Earth Do you want to be a maestro? Yes, I do.
Yes, I want that! 'Putting our taste buds on the line' Oh! '.
.
as we discover the extraordinary truth' Boom, that is '.
.
behind our everyday foods.
' Just like an meat machine.
No fat.
Meat.
COW MOOS Coming up, I'm in Italy, capturing the essence of Earl Grey tea.
Oh! I get my snout into the classic British porky pub snack.
Usually when I go to factories, they don't let me try anything.
This is great! I love pork scratchings.
And I'm in California getting to the very heart of jelly beans.
It really isa rainbow sea of beans.
A sea of beans.
First, Earl Grey.
Do you know the Earl Grey flavour comes from in tea? 'Honestly?' Yeah.
'No.
' 'The flavour?' Yeah, you know, it's got a special flavour.
It's a bit citrusy, it's a bit kind of floral.
What is the flavouring that gives it that funny taste? 'I wouldn't know, I'm afraid.
' It's weird, isn't it? 'Earl Grey is a blend which has been flavoured with the 'addition of oil of bergamot.
' What's a bergamot? 'I've Burger-what? Well, it does seem to be on the packet so I'm off to Italy to a region that grows an incredible 90% of the world's supply.
We touch down in Reggio, AKA the City of Bergamot, and it doesn't take me long to find some.
Look at this place.
So, we've got bergamot juice, bergamot figs, bergamot sweets.
This is so Italian.
Even it's in the pasta.
So, bergamot isn't just in our Earl Grey tea.
It seems you can bung it in almost anything.
But what is it, exactly? We drive an hour east to a bergamot field.
Just arrived at the plantation.
There's trees everywhere.
'But I'm wondering which part of these trees gives you bergamot.
'I've arranged to meet the owner, a fella called Fabio.
' I'm Jim.
Nice to see you.
Is this bergamot here? 'So, it's the fruit they use.
' When I look at it on the trees, it sort of looks like a funny-shaped lemon.
Can we cut one open and taste it? Wow, look at that.
It smells like a lemon.
But looks like an orange.
Ah! She's laughing as well! What can I say, very, very bitter.
So, how do you turn it into something so fragrant that you can put into tea to make Earl Grey? 'Fabio's factory processes 1000 crates of these bitter fruits 'each day.
' In they go.
'First, the bergamot are washed.
' So, what's happening here? It's like a great, big cheese grater.
Out they come! Wow, that looks so weird.
Tell me, why have you taken all the skin off? The pulp is used in marmalade, and the juice is sold all over Italy but the Earl Grey taste comes from the oil found in the peel.
Smells incredible.
It's starting to smell a bit like Earl Grey now.
Wow, that's incredible.
So, it really is liquid gold, then.
Can I drink? No? Too expensive.
One kilo costs over 200 quid.
So, why aren't we paying the earth for our Earl Grey? And how do they get an oil into the teabags? Back in the UK, I head to Burnley to see how a flavour manufacturer puts the bergamot bang in our bags.
How are you? I'm Tony.
Tony and his team supply tea manufacturers with flavouring.
But what do they do with the expensive bergamot oil to ensure affordable Earl Grey tea? We've got a combination of flavours with the bergamot oil to make an Earl Grey flavouring.
So, what would happen if you made your tea, then, just with bergamot? It'd be too expensive.
So, what you do, you actually blend a combination of the citrus flavours together with the bergamot.
And every tea manufacturer, do they have their own recipe when it comes to Earl Grey? Yes, everyone has individual recipes.
Right.
The more expensive the teabag, the more bergamot oil will be used.
The budget bags can contain no real bergamot at all, just a replica flavour made from cheaper citrus fruits.
So, once you've got all these oils, what happens next? I'll take you through to the second step.
They now need to transform this oily substance into something dry you can bung in a bag.
We're going to blend an Earl Grey emulsion together.
'To do this, they whizz up water with a binding agent.
'Then comes the all-important citrus oil concoction, 'including the bergamot oil.
' So, this emulsion we're making, how many teabags would it make? It will make approximately one million teabags.
A million teabags just from this? Yes.
Then it's poured into moulds and baked in a vacuum oven for over 22 hours until it's completely dried out.
Here's one he made earlier.
It's a million miles away from teabags right now, isn't it? 'It's then smashed up.
' That is so bizarre.
A bit like Breaking Bergamot, isn't it? Then these aromatic rocks are granulated.
That's what's going into the final teabag.
Wow, look at that, it's basically those granules.
So, there's not many of them in there, is it? You don't need a lot for that flavour.
What's inside an Early Grey teabag is simply bog-standard breakfast tea with a sprinkle of concentrated bergamot flavour.
So, can I taste one? Yes.
This will font color="#fff Very strong.
Ugh! That could go into 20-30 teabags.
Ugh! Coming up, I meet a gentleman who's in hot water with his bagless tea.
When it comes to tea, you're a bit of a nutty professor, aren't you? Because what are you doing? We're trying to get rid of the t Next, pork scratchings.
I'm trying to get to the bottom of something, right.
I bought some pork scratchings the other day, and I was looking at the back, and I always thought pork scratchings were a very British affair.
It says they're made in the UK "using EU pork rind.
" Why would we need to import different pigs? We've got loads of pigs, haven't we, in Britain? 'That's a good question, to be honest.
'I'll have to look into that for you.
' Do they have different pigs in Europe? Have they got more ski Why do you think they might go elsewhere for the skin? I really don't know.
I think crackling's the best thing that's ever happened to a pig.
'Is that what I can hear you eating?' It is, sorry.
'That's all right.
How is it?' They're delicious.
Porky goodness.
OINK! OINK! So, what are EU rinds, and why isn't the great British pub snack made from British pigs? To help me with this porky puzzle, this little piggy is off to a pork scratching factory in Wigan.
Hello, Dave.
What are you doing here? font color="#F David Openshaw has been in the business for 30 years and his family company produces up to 300,000 packets of scratchings every week.
So, looks like I've come to the right place.
So, when I look at the back of a packet of pork scratchings, it says, generally, "product of the EU.
" Why is it? We have a lot of pigs in Britain, why don't you use British pork? Come on, I'll show you.
'David's lined up a scratchings taste test, one with EU rinds, 'and the other British.
' It's what I'd expect from a pork scratching.
This is much harder to get through.
This is a lot chewier.
That's the Danish, that the English.
Is that right? That's correct.
Big difference.
Absolutely.
'So, it seems British rind just doesn't cut the mustard.
' So, it's all Danish? It's not all Danish, no.
Normally, if we can't get Danish, then we do go elsewhere for rind.
Normally, other parts of Europe.
So, that explains the puzzling packets.
EU rinds can be from any EU country but, in reality, 95% of pork scratchings in the UK are made from Danish rinds, and David imports up to 40 tonnes every week.
And what cut is this? This is shank.
That's the best cut for pork scratchings.
It's softer, it's got the right amount of fat on.
'The rinds are chopped in this gigantic guillotine, 'but I still don't get why Danish is best.
' So, what makes this so different, then, from British pigs? The Danes process their carcasses differently to everybody else.
In Denmark, they use state-of-the-art automated equipment to scorch their pigs in a huge furnace.
The hairless skin is then pummelled to tenderise the rind.
And, although other countries use a similar process, the Danes do it twice, and in vast volumes, processing up to 20,000 pigs every day.
Because of the volumes they're doing, and the way they're doing it, they can get that regular consistency of quality, fat thickness, and finished product.
So, ultimately, there's a lot more skin to go round? That's So, how do you turn 20 tonnes of pig skin into this appetising, meaty mouthful? You deep fry it for nearly 2 hours, of course.
Can I try it? You may.
Really? You certainly may.
Really good.
Usually when I go to factories, they don't let me try anything.
This is great! I love pork scratchings.
So, there you have it, the great British pork scratching is likely to be Danish.
Later, I find out how pig skin is giving some people a new lease of life.
With any luck, there it is.
That's amazing.
Next, jelly beans.
I'm in California with an urgent candied conundrum.
Now, on these ingredients here, there is no mention of gelatine.
So, what on earth is the jelly in my jelly bean? I'm heading towards the world's biggest jelly bean makers .
.
where I've got a private tour lined up with king of beans, Danny Williams.
Are you Kate? Yeah.
I'm Danny.
Lovely to meet you.
Confectionery has been Danny's raison d'etre for over 25 years.
Nets on, we head straight to the factory floor.
I'm getting a lot of interesting smells.
Yeah? font 'So, what's the jelly in the been?' This is where everything comes together.
This is your cornstarch, your sugar, your syrup and water after it's been cooked.
This is where we add all of the colour and the flavour.
So, at this stage, it looks gelatinous.
It does.
Is there any jelly in it? There is no jelly in it.
No gelatine? No gelatine.
So, the starch gives you that jelly consistency inside your bean.
So, it's not really a jelly bean.
I mean, really, strictly, it's a cornstarch bean.
I think "jelly bean" sounds a little better, right? Yeah, I'm with you on that one, Danny.
So, once they've flavoured and coloured the mixture, it's moulded into the bean shapes.
That done, they bunk up for the night in the drying room.
It's literally full of beans.
Yes.
Refreshed after a good night's rest, they're steamed and showered with sugar.
You can see the beans here.
Ooh! Look at those! They feel very, very squishy.
We haven't finished processing the bean.
You can see how they look like little raisins.
What flavour is this, Danny? I don't know.
Is it pear?/font It tastes like pear.
I think it's juicy pear.
We'll say it's juicy pear, anyway.
Coming up, how do you turn these soft white pellets into those familiar Technicolor beans? It's almost like a jelly bean launderette.
They look like giant washing machines.
Yeah.
Back to jelly beans.
I'm in California, discovering that they're a bit of a misnomer.
So it's not really a jelly bean.
Strictly, it's a cornstarch bean.
Er, I think jelly bean sounds a little better.
We've seen the beginnings of a bean, but what's next? This is what we call engrossing and she's putting layers of syrup and sugar onto the bean, and so the bean will actually get bigger.
It's almost like a jelly bean laundrette that we're at right now.
Sort of.
They look like giant washing machines.
font These beans are on a spin cycle for over two hours, all the while being doused in sugar and flavoured syrup.
You can see how much rounder they are and how much better they look.
They look like they've gotten fat.
They've plumped up and they're a little bit harder.
Yeah.
/ Butter popcorn.
I'm going to go with toasted marshmallow.
You've got to be right! They may be fully flavoured, but there's still a way to go till they hit the packets.
There's the bean buffing, bean embossing and bean blending.
Who knew the creation of these simple, little sweeties was Oh! It really isa rainbow sea of beans.
A sea of beans.
/f That is really quite something, isn't it? Amazing, isn't it How many beans have you got in here? We can make over 60 million beans in a day and this is the equivalent, probably, of about three to four days.
So that's the see of beans.
That's a quarter of a billion jelly beans, folks.
From kiwi to tutti-frutti and hot cinnamon to peach bellini, it's a fiesta of flavours.
And why are they just sitting here? Surely you want to be bagging these up and shipping them out.
We want to be bagging these, but we have to let them rest.
Depending on the amount of ingredients that we put into each bean determines how long it has to sit.
You can be somewhere, in the whole process, between eight and, let's say, 19 days.
Really? Yes.
I can't believe it takes that long to make a jelly bean.
Yea Oh, Danny, where have you been all my life? I'm telling you, sweet guy, right? Back to Earl Grey tea.
In Italy, I discovered that the distinctive taste comes from the oil of the bergamot, but it's expensive stuff, so most of our brews contain a naturally derived replica.
Wow, look at that! So there's not many of them in there, is there? You don't need a lot for that flavour.
Now I've worked out the contents of an Earl Grey tea bag, it seems the bag itself is under threat.
We've come across a tea entrepreneur who is causing quite a stir on social media with his plans to bin the bag.
Just the idea of doing away with the humble tea bag and having tea out of a can has enraged so many people.
I'm not convinced either, but I want to see if this guy really deserves all this Twitter hype.
96% of all the tea drunk in Britain is brewed from a bag, so is this just a storm in a teacup? I've come to Surrey to pay Guy Woodall a visit.
Hope he's got the kettle on.
Hi, there, I'm Jim.
Hi, Jimmy, I'm Guy.
font color= I'm here for a cup of tea.
Right, let's go.
Guy has been brewing away in his barn for some time.
When it comes to tea, you're a bit of a nutty professor, aren't you? Cos what are you doing? Tea bags are a compromise, as far as I'm concerned.
They give you a low-quality cup of tea with a nasty, soggy tea bag to get rid of at the end of it.
How are you going to make the tea? We're going to use normal loose-leaf tea, proper tea, a nice bit of Earl Grey, and so what we're going to do is exactly what you would do in a teapot, except we're going to make it about 30 or 40 times more strong.
Once we've made our super-strong brew, it goes through a press.
Oh, look at this! Here it comes! That's super-strong.
You'd be able to stand your spoon up in that tea.
Guy makes 100 litres of this mega-brew for each batch of instant tea, which is then filtered in this cauldron to remove any lingering tea leaves.
Once the tea is filtered, what happens next? Next stage is to can it.
You can the tea? We put it into aerosol cans.
This is the bit I want to see.
Shall I show it to you? Yeah, do it.
The pasteurised tea goes into sterile, sealed aerosol cans so there's no need for chemical preservatives.
I'm quite sceptical if instant tea can be as good as fresh tea.
font color="#FFFF0 Do you want to have a brew-off? OK.
'While I pop the bags in the pot and wait for my brew' Tea bag's in there.
'.
.
it's just a quick squirt from Guy and then hot water.
Instant tea.
' And that's done? I'm done.
For me, it's a three-minute wait and I'm ready.
My grandfather used to be a tea-taster, so I can't mess this up.
Let the blind taste test commence.
This one first.
'Now, as tea-tasting runs in my family, 'surely an instant tea in a can 'will fail to impress my discerning palate.
'But which one is it?' That's all right.
Cuppa number two Oh, that's a good cup of tea! That's the tea I like.
Terrific.
Was that your tea? That was my tea.
That has come out of an aerosol can? Yep.
That tea dances on your tongue, doesn't it? Yeah, that's blown me away.
'Well, I never.
'But at three times the cost of an average cup of Earl Grey, 'doing away with the bag will cost you.
' Back to pork scratchings.
Now, it turns out the British pub classic isn't as British as we thought.
That's the Danish, that's the English.
Is that right? That's correct.
Big difference.
It seems the Danes do a better line of rind.
But I've heard about another rather unexpected purpose for pigskin at the Elective Orthopaedic Centre in Epsom.
I've arranged to meet surgeon Duncan Tennent and his patient, Peter Tricot.
Duncan Tennent.
Nice to meet you, Duncan.
How are you feeling OK.
Raring to go? Raring to go, You want to get on with it? Yep.
Stop talking to me? OK, excellent.
I'll leave you to it.
I'll see you in there.
Peter has serious shoulder trouble.
He has a severely torn rotator cuff and several previous ops have failed.
Explain a little bit about what you're going to do.
The rotator cuff is four muscles that hold the shoulder joint together and then there's a supraspinatus tendon.
OK.
Unfortunately, in Peter's case, the tendon has torn.
When you're missing the supraspinatus, the shoulder then slides up and down and doesn't really function.
font color="#fff That's what's causing the pain and the fact that he can't lift his arm up at all, so what we're going to do today is replace the tendon with a pigskin graft, so it's basically a scaffold and, over time, Peter's own cells will grow into the scaffold so, ultimately, this will disappear to be replaced seamlessly Really? .
.
with Peter's own tissues.
Wow.
This whole extraordinary operation is done using keyhole surgery.
First, the damaged tissue is removed.
There's a hole going right through the tendon there, so all of this is just rubbish.
This is the bone where the tendon should be attached.
Once the shoulder joint has been prepped, it's time to see this stuff in action.
So is that it? That's it.
Wow.
That originates from pigskin? That's pigskin, yeah.
It's custom-tailored to Peter's shoulder joint.
So this is the actual skin.
That is tough.
From a strength point of view, that's fantastic.
Yeah.
/font Am I right in thinking that that's the little holes for their hair? INDISTINC Yeah.
'Mr Tennent then skilfully feeds the skin strip into Peter's shoulder.
'Pigs have been our organ donors for over a decade, mainly because 'their biology is similar to ours 'and the supply is readily available.
' There it is.
There we go.
That's amazing.
It's secured with a few stitches and Bob's your uncle - a brand-new tendon.
Before this type of surgery came along, what would the rest of Peter's life be like? Really bad.
/fo He would have had to go on with the pain and not being able to lift his arms? Forever, whereas this operation has given us a whole new option.
font color="#fffff I'm happy.
Happy? That's it.
In just one hour, this amazing procedure is over.
Fingers crossed for him.
All his other muscles look good.
Yeah.
Cartilage looks good.
Right.
So he's taking all the boxes.
Right.
Amazing.
So you're happy? I'm very happy with it.
Well, who would have thought? From pork scratchings to pioneering orthopaedic surgery.
We've heard from Peter and he is recovering well.
He's confident that the op will give him back a fully functioning shoulder joint.
'Next time, I'm in Thailand to find out what's so fishy about this veg.
' How do you turn this into a prawn cracker? 'I shake things up with the truth about salt.
' 16.
That's a big surprise.
That's a lot of salt.
You'd be able to float in it! 'And I'm getting down with the herbs.
' That's amazing.
This has moved on a lot since I was growing cress when I was a kid.