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Cereal

Documentary series. Gregg Wallace receives a load of corn fresh off the boat from Argentina and follows its journey through the largest breakfast cereal factory in Europe.

Gregg Wallace receives a load of corn fresh off the boat from Argentina and follows its journey through the largest breakfast cereal factory in Europe as it is cooked, milled and flavoured to become Crunchy Nut Cornflakes. He discovers how they can produce more than a million boxes of cereal every 24 hours and distribute them all over the UK, Europe and across the globe, as far away as Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Cherry Healey finds out about the immunity-boosting powers of vitamin D, which is added to many of our breakfast cereals. One in five of us is deficient in the sunshine vitamin and yet the latest research shows that having optimum levels can potentially prevent you from getting the common cold by up to 50 per cent. Cherry also discovers the effect that skipping breakfast has on our cognitive function - studies show that breakfast skippers perform seven per cent worse in attention tests - and she also follows the production of the nation's best-selling cereal, Weetabix, and learns how every single grain of wheat that is milled for these wheat biscuits is grown within a 50-mile radius of the factory.

Historian Ruth Goodman sits down to a Victorian breakfast of lobster and pig's head to reveal how the average Victorian was gorging down a mind-boggling 4,500 calories a day and that breakfast cereal was invented as a healthy alternative. She also discovers that when it comes to advertising cereal, nostalgia certainly seems to pay - the six top sellers in the UK today were all invented more than 30 years ago and the cereal industry is now worth over one and a half billion pounds.

59 minutes

Last on

Sun 1 Nov 202018:00

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  • The Vamps

    Wake Up

  • Eliza and the Bear

    Make It On My Own

  • Solomon Grey

    Firechild

  • Naughty Boy

    Runnin’ (Lose It All) (feat. Beyoncé & Arrow Benjamin)

  • Seinabo Sey

    Hard Time

  • Seinabo Sey

    Hard Time

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    Cassy O'

  • Years & Years

    Worship

  • Eliza

    Back Packing

  • Eliza

    Back Packing

  • Laura Doggett

    Into The Glass

  • Emeli Sandé

    Heaven

  • Hozier

    Sedated

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    Sedated

  • Florence + the Machine

    Ship To Wreck

  • Chasing Grace

    Tonight

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    White Lies

  • Sia

    Alive

  • Little Mix

    Love Me Like You

  • Vaults

    Midnight River

  • Raleigh Ritchie

    Bloodsport

  • The Rifles

    Long Walk Back

  • Coldplay

    Birds

  • Grimes

    RealiTi

  • Jakwob

    Fade (feat. Maiday)

  • Emeli Sandé

    Daddy

  • Of Monsters and Men

    Human (Glastonbury 2016)

Credits

RoleContributor
PresenterGregg Wallace
PresenterCherry Healey
PresenterRuth Goodman
Executive ProducerAlice Harper
Executive ProducerSanjay Singhal
Series ProducerChris Parkin
DirectorChris Parkin
Series ProducerAmanda Lyon
ProducerEmma Pound
Production CompanyVoltage TV Productions Ltd

Broadcasts

  • Tue 26 Jul 201620:00
  • Wed 27 Jul 201623:45
  • Sat 13 Aug 201602:35
  • Sun 2 Apr 201718:00
  • Sun 1 Nov 202018:00

Learn more about the history of the factory and how it has evolved with an interactive from The Open University.

Learn more about the history of the factory and how it has evolved with an interactive from The Open University.

The fascinating stories behind the production of some of our favourite products.