Wedneday 21 October

7.30-8.00pm BBC ONE

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.