Archive for October, 2009
Jimmy’s Food Factory – What’s In My Sandwich? – Episode 2
Oct 23, 2009 Author: admin | Filed under: Episodes
Jimmy Doherty attempts to unravel the
scientific secrets behind homemade sandwiches
Jimmy Doherty’s mission to unravel the scientific secrets behind mass food production continues with an investigation into the contents of homemade sandwiches.
Why does supermarket bread stay soft longer than home-baked bread? Jimmy attempts to recreate some “supermarket bread”, building his own factory mixer from a metal dustbin. He also wonders what it is about processed cheese slices that people love so much – after all, they’re only 60 per cent cheese. Could it simply be that they’re sliced-bread shaped? Back in the barn, Jimmy sets up his own processed-cheese production line to find out what the other ingredients are.
Bugs and caterpillars are rarely found in ready-bagged supermarket salad leaves so Jimmy investigates how one Wiltshire producer checks that 1.5 million bags a week are bug-free.
He is also keen to discover how supermarket suppliers grow tomatoes out of season and wonders whether they are doing anything to the fruit to be concerned about. He visits a tomato farm in Hertfordshire, where he discovers that it’s not greenhouses alone that help their tomatoes grow.
Jimmy’s Food Factory is simulcast on the BBC HD channel – the BBC’s High Definition channel, available through Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media.
Jimmy’s Food Factory – Breakfast – Episode 1
Oct 8, 2009 Author: admin | Filed under: Episodes
Jimmy Doherty’s mission to unravel the scientific secrets behind mass food production takes him to the country’s leading food manufacturers. With an ambitious glint in his eyes, Jimmy then decamps to a Suffolk barn to set up his own food factory, complete with a prototype supermarket food production line.
In the first programme in the series Jimmy takes a closer look at breakfast foods. He attempts to create cornflakes from scratch using corn kernels and a mangle. Armed with a paint stripper gun he creates his own instant coffee and, during a visit to a dairy farm, he discovers the advantages of using a robot to milk cows. With a handful of sugar beets he is surprised to see how something that contains only 17 per cent sugar can be turned into the familiar sweet granules people put on their cornflakes.
