TV cameras visit Europe's biggest tortilla chip factory in Coventry

[dutchman]

Food critic Gregg Wallace visits Walkers in the latest episode of Inside The Factory



A Coventry factory will prove it's a chip off the old block in a BBC programme airing tomorrow night (Wednesday).

Food critic and TV presenter Gregg Wallace will trawl Walkers on the Middlemarch Business Park in Siskin Parkway, near to Coventry Airport, during an episode of the latest series of Inside The Factory.

Covering more than 21,000 sqm - the size of three football pitches - the factory happens to be the biggest producer of tortillas in Europe and makes 60,000 tonnes of snacks every year.

Gregg will pay particular attention to the warehouse's production of the brand's UK bestseller, the 150g Dorito's sharing bag of chilli heatwave flavour tortilla chips.

"In the UK we eat seven packets of these tiny triangles every second," Gregg bellows as he watches Spanish corn enter the building at one end and bags of snacks emerge at the other.

The stats just keep on coming, from the size of the factory to the temperature of the ovens to the tonnage of Chilli Heatwave flavouring used each day.

After 17 hours and 8 minutes, the tortilla chips have been baked, seasoned, bagged and boxed, before they’re put onto palettes by two robots which can pack and stack 768 pallets a day – that’s 43,200 boxes.

The factory sends 50 truck-loads of tortilla chips all over the UK every day.

The hour-long show, which goes into all the detail you can ask for, will be shown on BBC 2 at 9pm on Wednesday night.

[dutchman]

a chip off the old block

Paul Stuart is wasted at the Telegraph, he should be on stage at the Apollo.