There are times when only a shiny, wobbly, bright yellow slice of processed cheese will do. Melted on top of a burger, for example, or layered up in a club sandwich. These slices bear little resemblance to traditionally made cheese in both taste and texture – and the way they’re produced is very different too. For a start, processed cheese – sometimes called American cheese – usually contains only around 50% "real" cheese.
It’s the best thing by which all other best things are measured, and there’s more to making that sliced loaf you see on grocery store shelves than just baking and cutting. The first commercial sliced loaves were produced in 1928 in Chillicothe, Missouri, with a machine invented by Iowa-born Otto Rohwedder. And when it comes to modern supermarket loaves, time – or lack of it – is the biggest point of difference compared to home-baked or artisan offerings.
Mass production needs quicker solutions, which typically means high-speed mixing and additives – part of what’s often called the Chorleywood way, after the UK company that developed the process in 1961. Emulsifiers are often used as a shortcut to fluffier bread that stays fresh for longer, while enzymes dramatically reduce the proving time and vitamin C strengthens the gluten. Preservatives, too, are commonplace to prevent mold and allow loaves to remain on sale – and in our bread bins – for longer.
Making the perfect slice starts before the bread is even baked. Each round of dough is divided into four, turned through 90 degrees and dropped into its tin – a process called four piecing that creates the perfect texture, so slices can be buttered without ripping. Finally, there’s the bagging. A mechanical arm scoops up the bag, fills it with air and quickly pulls it around the sliced loaf at super-fast speeds.
Cows' milk looks and seems pretty simple, and it’s the most consumed dairy product in countries including the UK and US. But the stuff that we buy in plastic cartons goes through some intense processes after being milked from the cow – which, though many dairy farmers still milk by hand, is often done using a machine so larger quantities can be produced. These machines create a vacuum around the cow’s teat to mimic the action of a suckling calf.
The white stuff is stored in refrigerated vats, which are agitated so the fat doesn’t separate from the liquid. It’s usually collected within two days, and tested for quality before being transported to processing plants. Milk is often rejected before even entering the factory if it doesn’t meet standards when tested for milk fat, protein and bacteria count. The stuff that passes is then pumped into storage silos for pasteurization, where it’s heated and quickly cooled to kill bacteria and extend shelf life.
All the cream or fat is separated off by spinning at high speeds to create centrifugal force, leaving skim milk – with the cream added back in to make whole or 2% milk. Another step, homogenization, is designed to prevent milk fat from floating to the top of its container. The milk is pushed through an atomizer to disperse the fat particles. Most milk is bottled at this stage, unless it’s destined for yogurt or other related products. Long-life milk is also treated with ultra high temperature (UHT) treatment.
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Anyone who’s tried their hand at homemade pasta may marvel at how it’s possible to produce it on a mass scale. The ingredients are few and simple, though the process of rolling and shaping can be time-consuming. Commercially-produced dried pasta is usually made with just water and semolina flour, and sometimes egg, kneaded in high silos able to hold up to 68,100kg (150,000lb). It’s at this stage that eggs, if used, are added, along with colorings or flavors such as tomato or beetroot for red and spinach for green.
The final step is drying, which began in Italy in the early 1900s so that pasta could be distributed across the country (and later, globally – until many countries developed their own machinery). Most mass-produced pasta is dried in tanks at high temperatures of up to 248°F (120°C) for between two and 10 hours, depending on the dough’s thickness. Shaped pasta is traditionally dried at lower temperatures, as it can take up to 15 hours. It’s then quickly cooled and packaged.
The spuds are peeled by a machine which bounces them off a sandpaper-like drum, then sliced, bathed in water and blown dry. Once cut and shaped, the thin slices of potato are then deep-fried in oil or, for lower-fat chips, baked. Seasonings – such as salt, sugar, citric acid, potassium chloride, colorings and flavorings – are added after cooking.
For maize-based snacks like Monster Munch and Cheetos, batches of the mixture are shaped by pressing under high-pressure. The individual pieces are oven-dried and seasoned before packaging. The puffiness of the bags is deliberate too: manufacturers inflate the packets with nitrogen gas before the crisps are weighed in and the bag sealed, helping to prevent the snacks getting crushed in transit.
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Another favorite snack, loved for their sturdiness when dipping into salsa or guacamole, and their deliciousness when smothered in melted cheese, tortilla chips are simply corn tortillas cut into wedges and deep-fried. Commercially-sold tortillas are made with dry or fresh masa flour ground from cooked and steeped corn (the grinding was traditionally done by hand). Preservatives and emulsifiers are usually added to extend shelf life.
The dough is steamed in kettles or cookers that are agitated for even cooking. It takes between a few minutes and half an hour depending on the temperature, type of corn and size of the vessel. The mixture is rapidly cooled, steeped to further soften and washed before excess water is drained off. It’s ground by machine into a coarse masa, which is then kneaded, thinly rolled into sheets and stamped into shapes. Even the cooking is involved, with the chips first baked and then cooled, before they’re fried and seasoned while still hot.
Breakfast cereal has come a long way since the first manufactured product, Granula, was invented by Dr James C. Jackson of Dansville, New York, in 1863. The nuggets were so tough on the teeth that they needed soaking overnight. It was Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, which came along in 1895, that launched what’s become a morning mainstay. Cereal is now manufactured in various ways depending on the size, shape and type of grain.
Flaked cereals, such as Corn Flakes and Bran Flakes, are made with corn, wheat or rice that’s ground down into grits, cooked with any extra flavoring, sweeteners and sometimes added vitamins, and then cooled or tempered before being pressed between cooled rollers. The crispness and toasty flavor typically comes from the flakes being tossed in very hot ovens, which also gets rid of any remaining moisture.
Shaped cereals – like the perennially popular Cheerios – are made by forming the cooked mixture into ribbons that are cut and shaped by a machine. They’re then processed like puffed cereals, which are puffed up in ovens, to finish the desired shape. Shredded cereals, meanwhile, are usually made with wheat that’s boiled and cooled before going between rollers – one smooth and one grooved, with a metal comb that shreds the wheat. The resulting ribbons are layered up before being cut to size.
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Beans were first canned in the mid-19th century with the Pennsylvania-based HJ Heinz Company starting mass production in 1895 – and they remain a pantry staple for many of us today. We know Heinz, which is still the most popular brand, uses haricot or navy beans, tomato purée and a secret blend of spices. But how do they get to the soft, swimming-in-sauce beans that last for years on the shelf?
Most surprising of all, the beans aren’t baked at all. The raw beans – which are grown in the US and shipped over to the UK factory in Wigan – are soaked and blanched to soften them. They’re then sealed in the can with the sauce and spice blend, and steamed to fully cook and kill any bacteria. In the US, they’re often still made with maple syrup or molasses and bacon, ham or salt pork – though this recipe proved too sweet for UK tastes.
One element we can’t shed much light on, however, is the spicing. It really is top secret, with apparently just two people aware of what the blend contains. It arrives at the Wigan factory in unlabeled bags to keep the exact contents under wraps.
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The chocolate we buy in the shops has undergone a long journey from bean to bar, both in terms of distance and process. There are several steps before the beans even reach the manufacturers, with ripe pods harvested from the cacao tree and the beans removed, fermented and dried. Only then are they roasted, releasing the familiar, comforting aromas of cocoa and establishing the moreish flavor of the final product.
For cocoa powder, the liquor (which isn’t actually alcoholic at all) is processed to remove the cocoa butter. Or it’s used to make chocolate bars, with a “conching” or refining stage grinding it down with sugar and, for milk chocolate, milk powder. The amount of cocoa butter blended in also determines the final flavor before the final stage: tempering. The chocolate is heated, cooled and heated again to create a silky smooth texture and bars that snap rather than crumble.
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They’re the go-to snack at baseball games and cinema outings, yet people are often sceptical – and maybe a little worried – about what’s actually in hot dogs. According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, they’re made with the trimmings leftover from other meat cuts, which are pre-cooked and cut or ground before being placed in a mixer. Speedy steel choppers combine the meat with spices, ice and curing ingredients such as sodium nitrite, which helps keep hot dogs fresh for longer and gives them that pinkish hue.
It’s this mixture that’s pumped into casings, which are usually cellulose but sometimes made from animal intestines or skins. Long strands of linked hot dogs are cooked in a smokehouse and cooled in water before the cellulose skins are peeled away (natural casings are left on). They’re then usually vacuum sealed in plastic film, but sometimes packaged in cans with salted water.
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McCain Foods, one of the biggest brands associated with oven chips and frozen French fries, describes the stages on its website. First, harvested potatoes go through a rigorous process of rock removal (to get rid of any grit and stones mixed in with the spuds), washing and trimming (to remove any black spots and bruises, or 'eyes'). The process for shaping straight-cut fries may be surprising too. The potatoes are pumped through a hydro cutter, a water gun that pushes them through a cross-hatch of blades, to create perfectly square edges.
Any that are too thin or misshaped are removed and those that pass muster are blanched so the potato soaks up the water, necessary to create a fluffy inside. The crispness comes from a quick dip in the fryer, with the fries then shaken on a juddering conveyer belt to remove excess cooking oil – so they’re typically lower in fat than fries fried at home or in a fast food shop. Once made, the fries are weighed out by a machine and dropped into bags that are then sealed and stored at temperatures way below freezing.