The WAY of our FOOD | Food Production Processes | Free Documentary

a real handmade product chips fresh from the Press contrast this with the industrial production of frozen fries with endless conveyor belts we want to know how much class production is in mass production and what's the best way to make the crispy golden fries at home that's why we're going to cor Blends there's a chip shop here where the chips are made in the traditional way by hand and fresh it looks more than tempting but before we try them we want to find out how they are made what ends up on our ples here is hand pressed the Belgian and Dutch way we'll find out what that means from yonas bellal and H since 2020 their shop has been booming yonas tells us the basic secret for perfect fries the starch content must be red otherwise the fries will be too Brown and hardly crispy it's it all comes down to the right potatoes ultimately the potatoes determine how good the fries will be for home I'd recommend someone local who you can ask here this is what I have in mind do you have a potato with a starch content that's ideal for fries Optimum starch content 13 to 16% that's what the agria variet he has and the two boys get them from netti near the Dutch border with a bit of luck you can find this variety online or in the Super Market otherwise look out for the me and yellow varieties y as's tip for The Taste mix peeled and unpeeled potatoes generally the completely unpeeled ones are just a tad crispier and crunch is simply important in frying and the potato like earthy taste comes with the peel and that's why we just want to have a good mix that's because the skin keeps more starch inside than a peel chip does and the more starch you have on the surface the more crunch you get this is particularly important in Industry that's why they mainly produce completely peeled deep frozen fries in Frans 100 tons of these are produced every day for the German Market too plant manager Nobert schmidler has been in charge of production for 25 years like the Chip Shop the Austrian family business also processes mainly the agria variety the only difference they have their own seats for this and give them to Regional Farmers this is because larger quantities require consistent quality primarily we process Mee varieties they are also specially grown for french fry production here you can also see a nice size of potato it should be elongated because you want to have relatively long fries to ensure quality the stuff take random samples from each batch to check for starch and sugar content the sugar content should be as low as possible this is because the sugar crystals quickly form dark crusts during frying the longer potatoes are stored the sooner they convert their starch into sugar sugar so potatoes should be processed into chips when they're as fresh as possible if the sugar content is too high it's better to rinse the fries after cutting the starch content is determined with the help of an underwater scale 14.7% a perfect mean value test passed the brown potatoes are ready for processing 300 tons roll off the belt here every day a thousand times more than in the Chip Shop peeled there unpeeled here in this respect mass is ahead of class because peeling potatoes by hand produces a lot of waste the factory is much more environmentally friendly here hot Steam and very high pressure give the potatoes a short sharp shock this only softens the outer part and the skin can be scrubed off [Music] easily here I can check approximately whether the peeling time is set correctly this here is the so-called peeling Edge which should be a maximum of 2 mm 1 to 2 mm the deeper it's cooked the more peeling waste there is spiral machines brush off the rest of the peel to make sure they only get the peel the employees adjust all the processes individually to the respective batch the potato is a living product every delivery is different here in the whole plant from potato import to deep fryer you can control everything so far mass production clearly has its nose in front less waste and far less of a burden on the muscles the fries continue their Journey on a slide this bundles the freshly peeled potatoes and prepares them for cutting water and very high pressure drive them through a long pipe into a grid-like cutting template the individual blades are arranged consecutively this keeps them sharp for longer and the blade does not clock so easily because the potatoes are forced through there incessantly the industrial fries here are about 7 mm thick most customers want thin fries because they don't take long to cook in the Corin chip shop it's completely different here the two boys follow the Belgian Dutch tradition and make thick potatoey chips Hower prepares for his daily workout because here there's a real potato press each potato is pressed through the grid-like cutting knife by hand what comes out is about 12 mm thick twice as thick as the M produced variety The Dutch prefer to eat them like this belgians prefer them even thicker not everyone has a press like this at home that's obvious then you have to cut them into even strips at home and how thick or how thin you cut them that's all a matter of taste but in general you can say that the thinner The Potato Sticks the crispier they can be in the end because the surface is simply larger the thicker the potato stick the more potato like the result will be afterwards either way the boys love the taste of their wild mix the way we do it because we press the whole potato through here smaller pieces come out somehow or like this these are the pieces right at the edge when they go through the Press of course that's always a sign of being handmade and we don't fish them out either it all gets fried together the Crooked bits just give the handmade fries That Special Touch Unthinkable for industrial production here only long and straight fries make it into the pack during the long processing procedure the sticks shring quite considerably any bits or sticks that are too small would become too hard and crunchy during frying and that would soon lead to complaints from customers on the top and the second level are the fries what's further down goes into making hash browns or mashed potatoes so mass production uses the rejected bits and pieces for a wide variety of potato products our sample fries go into the blanching machine precooking consolidates the straight structure and even color all for the perfect [Music] fry com cont then you can check whether they've been cooked to the correct degree if they break and are not yet puree like they shouldn't be too soft here at home net doesn't recommend precooking them too much trouble after all they have to be dried before frying this can be done easier at the Chip Shop the fresh slices go straight into a large round deep dryer the important thing is to preheat it well and use oil that's as neutral in taste as possible ha and yonas use a mixture of rape seed and sunflower if you want to make fries and fry them at home make sure you have a deep fryer with enough power if you have a fryer that doesn't have that much power then it's always better to fry small quantities prey small quantities and take smaller quantities when you deep fry too because otherwise the temperature will drop too much and if the temperature is not high enough the fries will soak up too much fat now let them bubble away for 7 minutes and stir them well but pre frying and deep frying yes that's right the two Specialists use a traditional technique from the french fries supposed country of origin this is known as double cooked it's nice and soft on the inside and in the second process it's really just a matter of getting these sticks really nice and crispy and above all of getting a nice color on the outside they're A Feast for the eyes too but where do our chips or fries come from to this day the belgians and the French still argue about which of the two Nations get the inventor title the French claimed to have fried potato sticks under the bridges of Paris during the French Revolution but it looks like the belgians claimed Victory with the help of a family document it's says that poor people in the 17th century traditionally fried small fish in hot oil and in cold Winters they used potato strips instead of [Music] fish in the meantime Haus fries have cooled down now they go into the oil fryer for another 3 and 1/2 minutes at about 170° and the crispy golden yellow sticks are ready the two boys only add Sal to their space Specialties they don't use any spice mixtures in their deep fryers for them the most important thing is the taste of the potato that's exactly how the Austrian Industrial company sees it they also use a tasteless vegetable oil depending on whether they are later to be oven fries or for the deep fryer the fries spend different lengths of time sizzling in the hot fat here the water is simply evaporated accordingly we make products here that have 70 to 72% water content at the end as well as products that have only 50% water content these are then the special types for end customers who need quick preparation or for example in the microwave the trick of making mass-produced fries taste like homemade is to make them only almost ready deep fried fries stay in the oil for less time after all they are then fried a second time at home just like in the Chip Shop often fries like those on the conveyor bels here spent the longest time in the sizzling oil our editor is allowed to taste one and surprisingly taste like they're done without salt of course nevertheless they already taste really delicious and above all fresh from here they only go into the blast freezer - 34° it's freezing cold in here the golden brown fries go into the packaging without any extras neither salt nor spices can be found on the list of ingredients then off they go into the boxes but where do they go next they now travel along the family business's pride and joy their own Cable Car a pragmatic solution the clattering for forklifts were too loud for the Neighbors day and night it carries the curtain into Cold Storage 100 tons a day from there the fries go to customers all over Europe portion of fries I can eat one anytime kned is not the only one half of all Germans eat them several times a month in the meantime Daily Business is in full swing at our little chip shop in coblin we ask some of the customers what brings them here do the fries taste different here than anywhere else whenever I made fries myself I couldn't get them really crispy they were always so soft well I don't know how they do it but it's definitely a success they definitely taste very good they don't taste that greasy my daughter's been here a few times and she raved about how good they are and so I thought let's give it a try and I think they're great they taste really good but we want to see for ourselves our editor gets to try the handmade fries how close are mass production and class production it's really hot inside so it's really fresh oh look here's the peel mhm yes it tastes a bit more potatoey admittedly Mass produce doesn't quite come up to homemade class but it's really close one thing is certain chip shop or factory they both get the best out of their potatoes the trick with frozen fries is to use the right ones and when making them yourself cut Meely elongated potatoes into even strips and double fry them this is the best way to make one of our favorite potato products french fried potatoes every year the Germans consume 53,000 tons of fish fingers that's two billion sticks but how does an Alaska Pollock become such a crispy stick fish fingers are one of the most popular fish dishes and they are produced here by the ton in Europe's large fish finger production plant fish with coolus they were invented over 50 years ago when fish was a bad seller since then it's developed into a real classic our reporter Matias fedler sets off to bmaa production manager dlman is already waiting for him I'm a little disappointed to see you now why is that I thought the captain was showing me round oh and then Along Comes the production manager what a disappointment where's your fish now right in front of you it's here uhhuh where did it come from mainly from the bearing sea between Alaska and Russia and it's caught there and packed like this directly on board can you show me that if you want to travel about 15,000 km I'd be glad to we won't do that then Bria from fishing port the fish arrives here but not of course every day the fishing fleet's out there in the Arctic somewhere but when it comes in it's right here out there they sail far into the Arctic Ocean the fishing ships they start their trip from Scandinavia and for months they are on the hunt for Alaska Pollock when the Nets are hauled in the fish is processed directly in the floating factories special machines cut boneless fish fillets from the Pollock in the process the machine cuts out the entire skeleton what remains is the muscle the fillets must be packed without any gaps or air bubbles this is extremely important we'll see why later when the sticks are created to ensure that the fish arrives fresh in Germany it is immediately deep Frozen atus 30° that's important because fish goes off very quickly it contains unsaturated fatty acids and especially proteins which makes it a healthy food also very delicate microorganisms from the air decompose the fish proteins quickly when it's warm these organisms are especially active if the fish is cooled this puts the microorganisms into a kind of hibernation the decomposition processes are stopped the fish arrives here in blocks directly from the troller but first it has to come out of the box there are nearly 400 fish sticks in each block so here we now see the fish blocks on the way to the saw yes we're a frozen fish factory that means the fish blocks are frozen at a temperature of- 18° there is hard as rock now isn't that difficult to process no that's exactly right that's the property we need because they're about to meet the so the blocks have to be Rock Solid for this and above all they have to fit precis ly into the sewing machines that's why they're carefully inspected in the hall next door one in 300 blocks has to be inspect it the permitted deviation is 3 mm you really do measure down to the millimeter yes it's very important for us because if I don't have the right dimensions and weight and the block isn't Square I'll have problems later when I'm sewing the fish sticks then the machine gets mixed up correct yes for the subsequent check the blocks must be thought there must be no air pockets between the fish otherwise the fish sticks would have holes later any packing Errors By the men on the trollers would be rumbled here at the [Music] latest doesn't smell like fish does it if it really smelled a fish that wouldn't be good would it then it wouldn't be really fresh and these are all Phillies right I once heard that everything goes into fish sticks heads Tails fins yes it's always the same old prejudices I honestly don't know where they come from but these really are whole fillets you could put them in the pan like that too bones are not allowed to sneak into the fets either this light table would expose them well I can really assure anyone who has a fishbone phobia all fish no bones so this can now become a fish stick this can be a fish stick yes further on in the production Hall here at the first Saw Head the fish blocks are cut in half this is the first of a total of four sewing operations bors cut the fish blocks like wood in a sawmill after the first cut each half block contains 189 fish fingers three more SS turn these half blocks into nine bars each here's where it really pays off that the fish blocks were frozen with millimeter Precision on the ship when they're cut there's no waste at all that's my portion of fish fingers here we still have to cut it into sticks unfortunately we can't show you that in the machine it's too dangerous that's why the boss demonstrates this on a dismantled blade shaft here 21 fish sticks are cut from this strip the rotating knives cut the fish blocks into rectangles Block in sticks out perfect fish fingers nonstop 7 million of them are produced every day laid end to end that's easily 800 km each stick can contain parts of different fillets because they overlapped in the original Frozen block so this is what a naked fish finger looks like all we need now is the coating yeah the breading comes next this is the first step in the process the so-called wet breading and with this the bare fish stick gets a really good soaking this coating is to moisten the sticks completely it consists of water flour and salt why does it stick so well to the fish fingers the recipe has to be adapted to make sure that the liquid is so viscous that we have a light film on the fish sticks if there's too much water in it it would just flow away so it has to be a bit thicker like a really nice pancake mixture just like at home to finish off with they're gently blasted with air something's being blown away here why is that yes the term fish finger can only be used if certain criteria are met this is a standardized product that means 65% fish in the end product 35% breading and so that we don't have too much wet breading we blow it off [Music] here what remains is a film that acts like glue for the next step dry breading this consists of breadcrumbs and will later form the crispy coating of the fish [Music] sticks but this coating is still very sensitive where are they off to now into our deep fryer that means the fish sticks are already being being cooked no only the breading is deep fried that means the surface is heated the fish core Still Remains cold this is to maintain the stability of the breading because here you can still rub it off easily ah if I deep fry the fish beforehand then it's stuck on yes baked on Boiling canola oil now waits for the fish fingers in the deep fryer a mesh belt pulls them through their boiling but the oil in the Deep dryer is 200° C when the fish sticks fall into it the water evaporates from the breading the fish core must remain cold during frying the heat causes the proteins in the breading to solidify roasting substances are formed which provide coloring and flavor not even half a minute in the deep fryer and the breading is brown and crispy we've deep fried the breading which makes it stable and firm but the fish core is still frozen that is the great Balancing Act the breading needs heat but the fish must not get any because otherwise it would precook now and fall apart later in the pan that's why it goes straight into a cold chamber to cool down ah for 15 minutes- 30° draws every bit of warmth out of the fish sticks all the sticks are identical like peas in a pot do they look like this everywhere almost everywhere but there are other variations the one you have in your hand Matias is the classic fish finger then we have the battered version here that's it's a speciality for Germany Austria and England and for our friends on the British Isles we have something very special the potato based breading that means a bit crunchy yeah fish fingers have been around since 1959 they were invented in England a few years later they also came on the market in Germany initially there are over 20 different shapes meanwhile a uniform shape has become established throughout Europe it is the one that is best received by customers the fish fingers are now ready for packaging to do this they have first given a good shake this gets them on track they are supposed to go straight into the packs without any gaps matias's fingers are itching to help with the Sorting bring the line to a standstill and you're buying champagne for everyone so hold your nerve the packing station can cope with one fish finger that's the wrong way up but two bring it to a stand still so Matias have you got the hang of it it's a bit like playing Tetris you know but I'm not sure if I'm a help or a hindrance job done the machine does the rest automatically it fills 150 packets a minute how long is the journey from the frozen fish block into the packet just under half an hour from here the fish sticks travel to 19 countries if the fish were to Tha out in the process it would go off immediately but how do you avoid that in the high Bay Warehouse it's 30° below zero and the oxygen content is very low just like the air at high altitude it reduces bacteria there are about 7,000 palletes stored here how long can you feed Europe with this about 2 weeks then it's empty sophisticated Refrigeration technology ensures an unbroken coal chain special deep freeze trucks bring the fish fingers to the whole of Europe 50,000 tons of fish fingers are produced here every year an unimaginable quantity if all these fish fingers were laid end to endend they would Circle The Globe three and a half times Germany is raisin country we eat 66 million kilog of the dry fruit every year pure as a snack in pastries and dishes especially often around Christmas and Easter and all year round in raisin rolls much of the dried fruit comes from South Africa on the edge of the Kalahari the Orange River meanders hundreds of kilometers through what is actually a dry and Dusty landscape it provides enough water for growing grapes these are so-called wine grapes South Africans make wine from them the grapes are small round and relatively [Music] sour these Vines do not grow wine grapes but table grapes that are eaten fresh the variety is called Sultana or Thompson seedless a seedless grape that is sweeter larger and juicier than wine grapes thanks to the many hours of sunshine and high temperatures South Africans have optimal conditions for growing them the grapes that the farmers do not export fresh are left on the bush for as long as possible to increase the sugar content from these overripe fruits the South Africans make raisins at the beginning of February the workers start harvesting this Farm is one of the few in southern Africa that sells organic raisins Farm manager yako Burger is responsible for the fields and the Harvest the variety is the same as on other Farms but the organic cultivation is more elaborate firstly we don't use uh fertilizers we only use uh organic compost um the second one we don't do wheat control by um chemical waste we only use um the and uh or machines by mulching and then the third part we only spray for pesticides by using contact Metals where that doesn't go into the grape it stays on the outside and it doesn't um we you could wash it away before or you want to use it after the Harvest the transformation into raisins begins and this is done on such large areas workers tip the fruit on the bare concrete floor so that all the grapes dry evenly the men and women have to sprit them out in doing so they mustn't damage the skin of the grapes otherwise they will start to go moldy now Mother Nature Turns The Grapes into raisins the Sun causes the water in the fruit to evaporate the temperature at the bottom Rises to 47° C the sugar inside starts to caramelize and turns brown the color of the raisins changes when they are ready these dried grapes come into the shops under the name raisins or sultanas in addition there are currants these are made in the same way but from a different variety of grape the fruit was first cultivated hundred hundreds of years ago in the area around the Greek city of Corinth hence the name both varieties taste sweet but why is that okay one rais have the same amount of sugar than um berries sometimes it will taste sweeter because of the highly concentrated level of sugar but the um water has evaporated while the sun is dried so it tastes sweeter because of that and then the when you eat some berries you only use two three or four at a time while when you take some raisins you will take a handful to eat after about 3 weeks the raisins are completely dried the water content is only about 12% but they cannot be sold yet they are sent to the factory in wooden crates for further processing every year 8,000 tons of raisins are processed here alone 600 tons are grown in their own Fields the rest is purchased the heat of the sun has caused the berries to lose their water the sugar content has risen from 50 to almost 70% and the green chlorophyll has been degraded another reason why the raisins are now dark at the end of this production line 5 kilos of fresh grapes yield 1 kg of raisins these Botha monitors the quality of the fruit when there's snow in Europe and people are shivering the South Africans have one big Advantage because of they've got have winter and we have the summer condition that we dry out grapes make raisins and Export it to the Europe so that's a very good Advantage for us for the market and the other markets we export to mostly is Africa and America but why do do the raisins have to be processed at all it's simple they still stick together and hang from their stems the machine separates them with the help of vibrating plates and seeps now there are still smaller stones and lots of dust on and between the fruit this water Tue washes the raisins with warm water of 35° stones sink to the bottom and are washed away because the berries only float in the water for a short time they do not absorb any moisture at the end of the chw there's a real raisin strudel this is where the excess water is pumped [Music] out quality control comes next the women sort out muddy fruit are those with color deviations a tedious job but the human eye is difficult to replace by machines the factory sells the rejects as be Goods if you put the raisins in a box as they are now they stick together that's why the South Africans add a tiny portion of organic oil and a very thin layer of this wraps itself around the raisins then they go into the box every hour three tons of finished raisins roll out of the factory 12 1/2 kilos go into each box in Europe bakery these are main buyers but what is the best way to store the dry fruit at home best place to store raisins will be in a close container that you can store inside a cupboard that's sealed for better sh life that can give you up to 24 months sh life temperature around about 15° not very hot conditions we follow the raisins on their way to becoming raisin rolls and end up at the the zebre wholesale Bakery on the lower rine here an employee is preparing the puff pastry for almost 2,700 raisin rolls in Europe by the way only one nation eats more raisins than the Germans the British with almost 90,000 tons per year the dried grapes were brought to Europe as early as the 11th century by returning Crusaders back then the Germans try to produce raisins themselves but without success it's too cold there but German Bakers are experts at making raisin rolls the dough is ready for kneading but aren't the raisins missing for a good reason if you added them now they would be squashed completely by the machine nevertheless production manager gead ramp is already on his way to the warehouse The Bakers from the lower rine need 800 kilos of raisins per week not only for rolls but also for bread and other baked goods though the dri berries have many advantages there are also a few disadvantages the advantages of raisins in baking are they have a different flavor the raisin is a fresh fruit that also keeps the pastry fresh for a long time and the disadvantage is if the raisin hasn't been treated properly before baking if it's not soaked and washed it makes the pastry dry and draws the moisture out of the pastry the kneading machine is ready to make the raisin roll particularly Airy The Bakers resort to a trick the baker flattens 6 kilos of dough at a time first by hand then with a special machine the roller gradually gets lower each time once everything is nice and flat these margarine slaps make their grand entrance the baker wraps them inside the dough rolls it out and folds it again and again this creates lots of layers of dough and fat 181 in total proper puff PR Tre consists of at least 30% margarine and butter the experts call this process layering while this is happening an employee is flowering the raisins the layer of flour binds the dough and the fruit together and holds them in place this prevents the raisins from falling out and burning later during baking a second funnel is filled with spreadable maripan this is made from ground almonds and sugar the cheaper version is called pipan and is made from Peach Stones here we go first an employee sprads the maripan on the dough which is barely 3 cm thick then it rains raisins rolling up the dough gives it its special shape the raisins and maripan are now evenly distributed inside only through the mixture of manual labor and machines can production manager gead renum and the 120 employees bake over 100,000 rolls every day compared to manual labor we manage many times more we make about 1,600 rolls per hour with the machine and if they did it all by hand it would be about 160 or 200 if they good a guillotine comes down every 4 cm and cuts off one raisin roll at a time but it can't go into the oven like that yet the women seal the end of each Roll by hand so that it won't come apart during baking on Trace they then go into the proofer so far nine different people have already been involved in the production of the raisin rolls at 20° and 80% humidity the rolls rise for a good hour or so without this fermentation you would only have a mushy lump in your hand after baking you can tell if the rolls are done fermenting by touching them they should be soft but still have some resistance next stop is the oven 180° C for 18 minutes after baking the puff pastry is Airy and the raisins are still evenly distribute it glaze and icing give the role the Final Touch when it comes to nuts these are regarded as royalty round and yellowish creamy and tender in flavor macadamia nuts are now increasingly seen on the nation's Supermarket shelves but what makes this nut with the particularly hard shell so expensive and where does it come from the Journey of the macadamia nut begins on the other side of the globe on a group of islands in the middle of the Pacific Hawaii the main region for Macadamia cultivation Plantation owner John Cross is a patient man after all planting Academia trees requires a lot of time only after 15 years do the trees yield enough nuts for a decent [Music] Harvest this wood here I know is 2 years old if I didn't grow this tree well enough um I would not have flowers because I wouldn't have 2-year-old wood so we got flowers here 8 months later I have a crop here's from last year uh these are about to I'd say they're a month away right here from dropping only when the nuts actually fall off the tree are they ready to be harvested using a rather unusual machine which originally served a completely different purpose it's usually for a golf course this is a golf picks up golf balls on in the driving range all the balls it picks up the nuts easily ah and it's fast if the nuts stay on the ground too long they quickly become too soft so it's good that the golf ball machine can gather up to 500 nuts per minute but no machine is perfect that's why workers pick up by hand the nuts the machine misses a real backbreaking job 8 hours every day at over 30° searching out nuts from under leaves and picking them out of the ground nevertheless the jobs are popular the workers make up to $50 a day just like you squat th like this and you just basically go with two hands so you pick faster yeah instead of just going like that and just just go like like just move around quick two hands going at the same time then you get more nuts yeah and the faster you pick the more bags you make in a day the more money you get oh that is macadamias are sensitive they only ripen under very specific conditions to guarantee a good harvest it has to be sunny and a little damp but please not too much rain and there's something else that the nuts especially like something that only Hawaii can [Music] offer the climate is ideal for growing macadamia in this District at night we have the mountain wind that flows off of our mountain and this land seab breeze occurs and we get the Cold Mountain winds coming off of Mount aloa then during the day we have the hot uh Sun warming up but once it's cold at night it stores energy it stores sugar stores fat and we get a very high quality nut because of the Breath of God perfect climate yet the trees originally come from Australia the First Nation peoples there had been eating the nuts for Millennia until they were officially discovered by Europeans in 1881 a botanist took the seeds to Hawaii for the first time and there his trees thrived much better soon the first commercial Plantation was established here which quickly made Hawaii the world market leader with a market share of up to 97% 8,000 kilos of macadamia nuts from the plantation travel across the island every day for further processing in the factory factory manager Matt kuster buys from the big plantations as well as from small farmers who often bring over just a few buckets of nuts the company pays just under $2 per kilo for the raw nuts is a really diverse load we have um as you can see everything from darker colored nuts all the way down to the light green this light green means it just dropped in the last day or so so that's really good these ones that are split a little bit more maybe fell a week ago that's what we're looking for as well I see very little spoilage in the load really pleased with this macadamia nuts are considered extremely healthy they're cholesterol free contained polyunsaturated fatty acids are full of calcium vitamin B and F phosphorus no wonder demand is growing by 30% a year worldwide still it's not always easy to do good business with macadamias we have perfect climate for macademia nuts so that's very beneficial on the other hand it's a small island land costs are incredibly high so that offsets some of that so that definitely a a a real very real challenge land costs are tremendously High We compete with people who are thinking about tearing up fully mature macadamia nut trees to plant coffee the factory processes 9 million kilos of nuts every year which of course begs one very simple question how do you crack the hardest nutshell in the world this is the first of dozens of machines that only have one single purpose to crack the Macadamia nutshell a few deep Cuts in the belly of the machine remove the outer shell at least revealing beautifully shaped Brown balls balls balls with a particularly tough shell so why is the macademia such a hard nut to crack the shell is actually no thicker than that of a walnut or hazelnut it consists mostly of cellulose the main component of plant cell walls however its cell structure is different from that of other types of nuts it contains more densely layered cell walls which are then much harder to [Music] crack our sheld macademia now move on to the SAA a drying CEO heated to 60° here the nuts sweat for 10 days until the moisture content has been reduced to 1.5% this causes the Macadamia to shrink and thus separate from the shell only then is it edible and crackable the sample is taken after the dry process hey Eric hey man how's everything look up there good good good got your samples today okay thank you one batch of moist macadamias can quickly ruin the Factory's reputation the shaking Test shows if alls well when we're able to shake them when they've been dried properly the kernel inside the nut is actually shrank and we can hear that rock around inside the shell if it was still moist it there would be no sound when we shook it after they've been dried down to 1.5% they are exited through the bottom of the tanks through an augur system taken into our Factory and that's where the cracking process begins the cracking process the biggest secret in macadamia nut production how do you crack the hardest nut in the world only one machine generates enough pressing force a cracker built a especially for this purpose the enemy of every macadamian nutshell the nuts on their final Journey this is where they roll in but what exactly happens in the belly of this machine 45 kilos of nuts per load fall into the cracking machine they are sorted according to size and pass between two metal drums that rotate against each other together they generate 300 lb of pressure per square sare inch enough to crack the shell without completely destroying the nut the cracker works but surprisingly it's anything but precise what comes out here is not cleanly shelled whole macadamia nuts but a completely chaotic mixture of shells and pieces of nut the final steps in the Sorting room now there is only one thing left to do bring order into the nut chaos No Easy Task 15 employees work here in two shifts on dozens of conveyor belts it takes 16 worksteps to completely free the nuts from their shells this fiddling around is not only timec consuming it's also expensive so it's gradually becoming clear why Macadamia cost so much more than other nuts now the yellow nuts are finally free completely shelless they float through the washing line one final sorting stage nothing is lost here even the smallest pieces are too valuable different sizes are used for different types of Industry the smallest things are used mostly the bakeries and things of that nature the Hales are used mostly in snack mixes the whole kernels will fall off the end that's really what we're looking for that's premium product ideally we would recover as many whole fernel as we can uh we know that's not possible so we're shooting for something above 55% the most expensive commercial nut in the world is sold wholesale raw for about $15 per kilo three times as much as hazelnuts or cashews the rest is processed further the most popular varieties salted spicy and caramel coated macadamia nuts which then set off on their 12,000 km journey to Germany's Supermarket shelves

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Length: 50min 39sec (3039 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 10 2024