Jimmy's Food Factory - Episode Guide

In the first programme Jimmy makes breakfast from scratch. Why is the most nutritious part of the corn removed from cornflakes? Why do some cereal manufacturers add iron and other vitamins? If instant coffee isn't made by grinding up coffee beans, how is it made?

To find out Jimmy uses a floor sander, tumble dryer, laundry mangle and kitchen bins to copy the industrial grinders, dryers, rollers and vats used inside the real factory.

To complete his breakfast menu, Jimmy heads away from the barn to discover that some cows at a farm in Devon are being milked by robots and how a muddy root vegetable is turned into pure white sugar.

In this episode Jimmy asks, 'What's really in my sandwich?' He attempts to discover what they do to supermarket bread to make it stay soft for over a week, while home-baked bread goes stale and rock hard after just a few days.

He wonders why square processed cheese slices are so popular - can it really be because they are so conveniently bread shaped? Why do they melt differently to 'normal cheese'? And if processed cheese only contains 60% cheese, what are the other ingredients?

To copy the factory processes, Jimmy makes supermarket bread in a metal dustbin, and square processed cheese slices using a tin bucket and an electric drill.

To complete his investigation Jimmy leaves the barn to find out how one bagged-salad producer in Wiltshire goes to herculean efforts to ensure we never find a caterpillar or bug in our bag, and how waste bananas are being used in Hertfordshire to grow tomatoes out of season.

Jimmy opens the fridge door to see what is done to make even nature's simplest foods safe for us to eat. He starts with milk. Every day in the UK 36 million litres are produced, but before it arrives on the supermarket shelf it is pasteurised and homogenised - but what does that involve? He also attempts to make his own reduced fat spread to find out what they do to vegetable oil to make it spreadable.

Jimmy copies the modern dairy processes by assembling his own production line using a high pressure washer, a tin bath, a fire extinguisher, a car jack, fence posts, a stepladder and a collection of buckets.

He is also surprised to unearth some of the imperfect wrinkly eggs that never make it onto the supermarket shelves and discovers how bacteria are used to turn milk into Red Leicester cheese.

Jimmy tries to copy some of the methods food companies use to preserve food to make it safe to eat weeks, months or even years after it is produced. Why do peas have to be frozen within hours of picking and why is factory freezing quicker than home freezing? Jimmy also attempts to suck all the water out of strawberries so they can be added to a box of breakfast cereal.

Jimmy copies the factory preserving processes using a leaf blower, a vacuum cleaner, two dog bowls, and the flexible hose from an extractor fan.

Jimmy also investigates what is done to chilled ready meals to make them safe to eat after a week, and is surprised to discover that the answer is not artificial preservatives but clever use of heat. He also goes inside the world's biggest baked beans factory to discover how they make canned food safe to store in our cupboards for months and even years.

Jimmy investigates the science behind our favourite snack foods. Can you describe the flavour of fizzy cola? Experts say cola's flavour includes lavender and coriander as well as orange, lime and lemon. After a supermarket taste test, Jimmy attempts to mix his own cola syrup and inject some fizz. He also tries to work out how to make potato into hoops, twirls and other shaped snacks.

Jimmy's snack food production line consists of drainpipe, a hand-mincer and a water cooler bottle. How will they help him reveal the secrets behind our favourite snack foods?

Jimmy visits the biggest ice cream factory in the world in his quest to discover the secret ingredient that makes ice cream the only food we can eat straight from the freezer. He also visits one of the world's biggest crisp factories to discover why the perfect crunch makes eating crisps so enjoyable.

Jimmy uncovers the tricks and techniques that food producers use to ensure we can enjoy favourite foods whenever we want. In the barn, Jimmy makes a first attempt at turning some of his own farmed pork into square sandwich ham. He also tries to copy the trick that banana suppliers use to artificially ripen green imported bananas so they are ready for the supermarket.

Jimmy copies the square ham factory production processes using 100 hypodermic needles, a bicycle pump, a cement mixer, a tin bath and a length of square drainpipe. He completes his investigation into science trickery by discovering how fish farmers fool their fish into believing it's summer when it's winter, so that farmed salmon is available all year round. He also uncovers the trick farmers use to produce mushrooms out of season.

In the first programme Jimmy makes some pub grub classics. Using a high-powered spud gun, Jimmy gets explosive results when he tries to make oven chips. Creating chicken kievs proves messy when he makes a home-made meat processing machine from an old car tyre. To complete his pub menu Jimmy discovers how a farm boss, who produces 480,000 sirloin steaks every year, makes sure every steak is tender and juicy. And Jimmy turns detective to find out how they stop imposters ending up in our packets of peanuts.

Jimmy tries out some of the technological tricks the food factories use to make food that's quick and easy to prepare.

Turning a fire extinguisher into a squirty cream canister, Jimmy squeezes out the secrets of the cream you don't need to whip. A mangle and an office shredder come in handy when he tries to work out what makes instant noodles 'instant', and in a microwave-rice factory, Jimmy discovers how they can guarantee their pre-cooked rice is safe to eat.

He also joins a lettuce grower to see how technology protects his fragile crop from the extremes of the British weather.

Jimmy makes breakfast with a bang when he uses a specially built cannon to create puffed rice cereal. And he finds out that pedal power is essential when you're trying to make peanut butter on an industrial scale.

At a yogurt factory, there's an invisible, unpaid workforce of billions to help Jimmy make his own strawberry yogurt.

And tea is Jimmy's favourite drink - he has fifteen cups a day! So he's in heaven when he visits a tea factory to find out how the chief tea taster makes sure every cuppa tastes as good as the last.

Jimmy creates the foods that provoke extreme reactions, and nothing divides the nation more than yeast extract. To find out the factory's secrets, Jimmy must force all his yeast cells to self-destruct, but they aren't playing ball.

People either love it or hate it, but is chewing gum a food? Jimmy has one of the most bizarre lists of ingredients ever as he tries to make his own.

Part of the lure of chocolate is its glossy appearance, and so Jimmy heads off to discover how factories make it so shiny people can't resist.

And people might love the taste, but nobody likes the way onions make you cry. So Jimmy meets a farmer who's harvesting a no-cry onion - will it end in tears?

Jimmy lifts the lids on the secrets in your lunch box. To find out the difference between freshly squeezed apple juice and juice made from concentrate, he adapts a lawn mower and a mangle with some inspiration and perspiration.

What do they do to extra light mayo to cut the calories? Jimmy fakes the fat with the help of some rotting cabbages and slime. And he visits a monster greenhouse to find out why cucumbers in the supermarket are perfectly straight

Ever wondered how your biscuit get the perfect crunch? Jimmy visits the biggest custard cream factory in the country to investigate.

Jimmy makes Sunday lunch from scratch. He tries to create the potato flakes that make instant mash. Like the factory, he uses a drum dryer to dehydrate his potatoes, but is his flame-thrower too powerful for the job?

And how do the food factories get the caffeine out of coffee? To find out, Jimmy makes his own decaf coffee using a fish tank!

Jimmy discovers how high-tech hospital kit is helping a sheep farmer choose his best rams for breeding. And he heads off to a factory that makes 30 million Yorkshire puddings every week. How do they get every one to rise perfectly?

Jimmy looks at how food factories use extreme temperatures to create our everyday foods. By turning down the temperature, Jimmy makes soft-serve ice-cream and uncovers something unexpected about the ice-cream van favourite.

Using heat and a high-pressure crusher, he makes one of the weirdest snacks around - prawn crackers. And he finds that it takes a lot of effort to make what the food takeaways give away for free.

Jimmy likes his curry spicy hot, and he discovers just how hot it has to be to last for two years in our cupboards. And he meets a broccoli farmer to see why he's in such a hurry to cool off.

It is Christmas time, but Jimmy's Food Factory never closes when it comes to revealing the secrets of supermarket food. Farmer Jimmy Doherty has set up his own food factory in a barn. Using farmyard and household junk, he is creating his own festive supermarket production line, and he has invited his family and friends round to test out his Christmas creations.

Chocolate and Christmas are perfect together. And Jimmy reckons a record player and a cement mixer are essential when it comes to making chocolate Brazil nuts, but will he be able to coat the nuts as smoothly as the factory does? And you may like smoky bacon on your turkey, but how do the supermarkets smoke foods without fire? Jimmy brings his barbecue out of storage to find out.

Every Christmas we eat 10 million turkeys, so Jimmy visits Britain's biggest turkey producer to find out how they get enough ready for the big day. And no festive season would be complete without a mince pie - and the filling can be made months in advance, so Jimmy's off to discover if it's a magic potion that keeps them fresh for so long.

Jimmy creates his own kids' party menu. When it comes to making fish fingers, a power saw is Jimmy's choice as he works out how the food factories try to make frozen fish taste as good as fresh. Jimmy also makes pink, fluffy marshmallows. But there's nothing very pink or fluffy about the ingredients which include pig skin and trotters.

He also visits a factory where they produce fifteen thousand mini rolls an hour to discover how they roll them all without cracks.

Jimmy meets a raspberry grower who wants to reduce the amount of pesticide he uses to protect his delicate crop from bugs. So what's a huge hair dryer got to do with it?