Gregg Wallace is in Italy, at an enormous pizza factory where they produce 400,000 frozen pizzas each day. He mixes up a 450 kilo batch of dough for the bases; enough for 180 000 pizzas. He watches as each one is stretched to exactly 26 centimetres in diameter, then pricked with 522 holes, each 4mm deep, before they’re topped with tomato and disappear into the wood fired oven. It’s 25 metres long and the floor is made of rotating panels of volcanic rock heated to 450 degrees Celsius. Gregg’s pizzas emerge fully cooked after just 80 seconds. They’re topped with cheese, pepperoni, chillies and onions, then frozen and dispatched on their 1000 mile journey to the freezer compartments of British supermarkets.\n \nMeanwhile Cherry Healey is asking if mozzarella – the traditional choice for pizzas - is also the scientific best bet. She finds that not all cheeses are equal, and that to melt well they must sit in a pH zone between 5 and 5.9. This explains why blue cheese and feta don’t work on pizza but mozzarella and gruyere do. In Austria, she transforms 400 kilos of pork into pepperoni. She learns that this preserved sausage is fermented and salted to give it a long shelf life. A production process that takes more than 2 weeks.\n\nHistorian Ruth Goodman is investigating the technology that allows frozen foods like pizza to be transported across the globe. 150 years ago we were all 'locavores', eating locally sourced food. But in the 1880s the game-changing invention of freezer ships meant that lamb and beef could be shipped from New Zealand and Australia. Combined with the 1938 arrival of the freezer truck, this created the worldwide cold chain that we rely on today. She also meets the man who popularised pizza in the UK back in 1965 when he opened his first restaurant in London’s Soho.
Source: BBC 2
Series 8: 10. Paint And Wallpaper
Gregg Wallace explores the Farrow & Ball factory in Dorset to learn how they produce up to 200,000 litres of paint and 10,000 metres of wallpaper a week. They make 270 different ...
15-03-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 9. Sofas
Gregg Wallace explores the HSL factory in West Yorkshire to find out how they make more than 5,000 sofas every year. The huge site has 250 staff dedicated to furniture making. G ...
08-03-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 8. Chocolate Bars
Gregg Wallace is in the UK’s city of chocolate, York, exploring how the Nestle factory makes more than eight million bars of chocolate every day. The bar he’s follow ...
01-03-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 7. Carpets
Gregg Wallace explores the Axminster factory in Devon to reveal how it produces 46,000 square metres of carpet every year. He follows the production of one of their best sellers ...
23-02-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 6. Bath Bombs
Gregg Wallace visits the colourful and fragrant Lush factory in Dorset to learn how an astonishing 14 million bath bombs are produced every year.\n\nCherry Healey visits Loughbo ...
16-02-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 5. Stout
Gregg Wallace explores the secrets of the Guinness brewery in Dublin to reveal how it makes two million litres of Irish stout every single day.\n\nCherry Healey visits a water t ...
09-02-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 4. Stuffed Pasta
Gregg Wallace explores the Dell Ugo factory in Hertfordshire to reveal how it makes 500 million stuffed pasta parcels every year. \n\nHe’s following production of one of ...
02-02-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 3. Jeans
Gregg Wallace visits two factories in Italy and Wales to explore the fascinating secrets behind how Welsh jeans brand Hiut make their trousers, learning how denim cloth is made ...
26-01-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 2. Jelly Beans
Gregg Wallace explores the Jelly Bean Factory in Dublin to reveal the incredible processes it employs to make ten million colourful little sweets every day.\n\nCherry Healey vis ...
19-01-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 1. Yorkshire Puddings
Gregg Wallace steps inside a huge Yorkshire puddings factory in Hull to learn how Aunt Bessie’s produces a staggering 500 million Yorkshire puddings every year.\n\nMeanwhi ...
12-01-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 10. Paint And Wallpaper
Gregg Wallace explores the Farrow & Ball factory in Dorset to learn how they produce up to 200,000 litres of paint and 10,000 metres of wallpaper a week. They make 270 different ...
15-03-2024
BBC 2
Series 6: 3. Yogurt
We eat them for breakfast, pack them in our lunch boxes and enjoy them for dessert; here in the UK we spend £1.4 billion a year on yogurt pots. Gregg Wallace visits a fact ...
09-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 7: Trains
When he was a child, Gregg loved playing with toy trainsets. Now he’s got special access to learn how the ultimate model is made: a huge 187-tonne, five-carriage electric ...
15-10-2023
BBC 2
Series 4: 1. Coffee
Gregg Wallace is in Derbyshire at an enormous coffee factory where they produce 175,000 jars of instant coffee every day. He follows the production of freeze-dried instant coffe ...
23-07-2019
BBC 2
Series 6: Tortilla Chips
Gregg Wallace visits the biggest tortilla factory in Europe. The Coventry site covers more than 21,000 square meters, the size of three football pitches, and makes 60,000 tonnes ...
21-06-2023
BBC 2
Series 5: 2. Wax Jackets
Gregg Wallace is in South Shields at a clothing factory where they produce 650 waxed jackets a day. He follows the production of water-resistant jackets from the arrival of 500- ...
10-09-2023
BBC 2
Series 3: 6. Soft Drinks
Gregg Wallace explores Ribena's Gloucestershire factory. It turns 90 per cent of Britain's blackcurrants into soft drinks, producing three million bottles a week. Gregg takes de ...
24-07-2022
BBC 2
Series 6: 5. Chairs
Gregg Wallace visits the Ercol factory in Buckinghamshire, an area associated with furniture making since the 19th century.\n\nWe Brits spend a staggering £300 million pou ...
15-02-2023
BBC 2