Food Factory (CA)

Made from the same recipe for generations, ten million molasses kisses roll off the assembly line every year; from start to finish it takes five days to make Spooky Eyes, the ghoulish gumballs that look just like human eyeballs; handmade and hauntingly delicious, green Zombie Bar chocolates feature a creepy crunch and blood red ‘bite me’ message; and, every Halloween, 20,000 Granny Smith apples are coated in caramel, covered with sticky rice crisps, and hand-dipped in chocolate to become sinfully scary colossal candy apples.

Like magic, cacao beans are roasted, cracked, and crushed, cooked in a cauldron, and then finally transformed into milk chocolate witch bars; dying to be eaten on Halloween, spooky marshmallow lollipops are hand-decorated to give each one its own personality; with their gory exterior and fruity centres, every Bloody Skulls candy starts life in powdered form and a red dye ultimately gives them their grisly appearance; and it wouldn’t be Halloween without bat cookies, but these blood thirsty creatures have a sweet buttery taste.

The tumbling room of a jawbreaker factory sounds like a jet engine; at Tim Hortons’ mammoth roasting facility, super-sized grinders tackle thousands of pounds of beans every hour; 30,000 savory empanadas are made from a single batch; and, the history of cocktail sauce is as zesty as its flavour.

Learn the age-old technique that packs the pistachio punch into every bite of baklava; watch as high-tech machines create 150 pounds of candy buttons per hour; a single batch of organic baby food fills 28,000 gourmet pouches; and, while feta cheese starts with a truckload of fresh sheep’s milk, its origins date back to ancient Greece.

A special machine was developed to put the chunks in Cherry Garcia ice cream; a computer-controlled recipe ensures the perfect blend of Earl Grey tea; a single batch of tapenade fills 15,000 jars; and, a fast-paced machine churns out 500 tutti-frutti lollipops every minute.

200 million pieces of Nitwitz candy are produced every year; so many popchips are made every year that they could circle the earth three times; nearly five million chocolaty Mighty Malts roll off the assembly line every day; and, chicken soup is cooked right in the can.

Wafer-thin peanut brittle is first cooked in a ‘savage fire mixer’; 100,000 pigs-in-a-blanket roll off the assembly line every day; in a small shop open 24/7, 12,000 Montreal-style bagels are hand-crafted daily; and, it takes 48 hours to produce every hand-made piece of Indian jalebi.

A machine called the ‘chunker’ helps put the magic in every pint of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream; a specially designed spinning nozzle puts the twist in every chocolate mint stick; 250 bushels of Extreme Beans are sweetly spiced and pickled every day; and, every batch of snowball cookies contains a bucketful of secret crumble.

A classic Canadian candy, 700 million Chicken Bones have been produced since 1885; a single batch of Pastel de Nata yields nearly 4,000 tantalizing tarts; only the largest garlic cloves are coated with olive oil and roasted to perfection; and, it takes ingenuity and a major assembly line to create break-apart chocolate oranges.

Mini Clark Bars are showered by a waterfall of chocolate; 11,000 kilograms of spuds are cooked every hour to make deviled egg potato salad; the dough for puff pastry cheese bites is punctured to prevent them from exploding in your oven; and, potato chip chocolate bars combine two surprising snacks in one delicious treat.

Super-sour Warheads candies contain as much malic acid as allowed by law; find out how veggies are turned into faux meat; every batch of maple bacon chocolate pods starts with two kilograms of crispy bacon; and, in order to make tons of sauerkraut, you’ll need massive tanks that hold 225,000 heads of cabbage.

You’ll need gallons of brine and up to 50 days to create the perfect pickle; if Fizzies drink tablets get wet too soon the entire factory could foam up; maple cream chocolates combine cocoa beans from Africa with Canadian maple syrup; and, every single bliss ball passes through a heavenly waterfall of chocolate.

Every jumbo lollipop is hand-twisted to give it its signature shape; Chinese hot and sour soup has been a crowd pleaser for more than 600 years; 13,000 hedgehog chocolates can be poured in an hour; and, seven million scallops are lovingly hand-wrapped in bacon every year.

Raspberry jellies leap through a shower of candy seeds to receive their finishing touch; every piece of crab Rangoon is hand-wrapped and fried to perfection; the key ingredient in cranberry pecan oat clusters is love; and, it takes tons of pressure to transform sugar-free powder into tiny yet powerful mints.

On their 90-minute trip to becoming curly fries, truckloads of potatoes enjoy a steam bath and a ride through a top-secret cutter; it takes 200,000 kilograms of cream cheese to frost half a million red velvet cakes a year; 50,000 vegetable pot pies are assembled and baked daily; and, Mitchell Sweets are marshmallow squares covered in fresh gooey caramel.

Fish fingers are showered with batter and breadcrumbs, and fried to golden brown in just 20 seconds; corn meal is puffed to perfection and then covered with caramel; on their way to becoming crinkle cut sweet potato fries, crate loads of sweet potatoes are showered, peeled, diced, and dried; and, chunks of cookie dough batter hit the deep freeze before being smothered in milk chocolate.

Over 3,000,000 hamburger patties are produced every single day; ribbon candy is sent through a crimper to get its signature shape; Mexican chocolate discs are based on a tradition that dates back thousands of years; and, it takes a secret sauce and loads of cheese to keep the enchilada assembly line moving.

Every 4,000-litre batch of micro-brewed root beer contains shovelfuls of spices and birch bark; sinfully delicious mini chocolate cakes, Lil’ Devils are hand-dipped in dark chocolate; it takes up to six months to make tamari soy sauce; and, kosher matzo bread must be completed in 18 minutes or the entire batch is scrapped.

50 million Big Hunks of peanutty nougat are produced every year; potato pellets become Smart Fries in just two minutes flat; one million gummy bears are produced every hour; and, apple chips feature one single ingredient and deliver the crispy satisfaction of potato chips without all the calories.

One million kilograms of ChocoRocks are produced every year; pretzel nuggets get their crunch in a 15-metre oven; the secret to perfect French fried onions is a multi-step battering process; and, Italian Brio soda gets its signature zing from a citrus fruit called chinotto.

Tabasco sauce is fermented in oak barrels for up to three years; uncover the secret to making irresistible Italian lemon ice; tumble dried for hours, nearly a million kilograms of peanuts hit the major leagues every year; and, double-chocolate mousse starts with two kinds of chocolate and lots of whipped cream.

The secret to delicious Dijon mustard is a whole lot of Chardonnay; a single batch of rabbi-approved coconut macaroons weighs in at 15,000 kg; eight million bottles of kosher certified teriyaki sauce are blended every year; and, hazelnut cream-filled wafers are toasted for just 40 seconds.

1,300 cans of cola are produced every minute; it takes two strains of bacteria and a modern centrifuge to produce fat-free Greek yogurt by the gallon; more than 700,000 kg of butter cream is used every year to make mountains of Swiss roll cakes; and, 30,000 jars of pickled sliced beets roll off the assembly line every

More than one and a half billion Sixlets candies are produced every year; it takes 40,000 heads of cabbage to make 400,000 cabbage rolls; sweet and salty popcorn puts a twist on an ancient snack; and, potato skins chips look just like their deli counter counterparts.

More than eight billion Shreddies have been produced since 1939; every batch of Black Forest cake calls for 12,000 cherries; Alfajor cookies require special one-on-one care; and, find out what it takes to make tzatziki by the tanker full.

Lasagna is painstakingly assembled by both man and machine; a single batch of school-safe brownies makes more than 6,500 chocolaty treats; maple caramelized onions contain a secret spice blend and Canadian maple syrup; and, find out what it takes to make 67 million apple turnovers every year.

Two frighteningly delicious special episodes of FOOD FACTORY reveal the story behind some of our all-time favourite Halloween treats: Made from the same recipe for generations, ten million molasses kisses roll off the assembly line every year; from start to finish it takes five days to make Spooky Eyes, the ghoulish gumballs that look just like human eyeballs; handmade and hauntingly delicious, green Zombie Bar chocolates feature a creepy crunch and blood red ‘bite me’ message; and, every Halloween, 20,000 Granny Smith apples are coated in caramel, covered with sticky rice crisps, and hand-dipped in chocolate to become sinfully scary colossal candy apples.

Two frighteningly delicious special episodes of FOOD FACTORY reveal the story behind some of our all-time favourite Halloween treats: Like magic, cacao beans are roasted, cracked, and crushed, cooked in a cauldron, and then finally transformed into milk chocolate witch bars; dying to be eaten on Halloween, spooky marshmallow lollipops are hand-decorated to give each one its own personality; with their gory exterior and fruity centres, every Bloody Skulls candy starts life in powdered form and a red dye ultimately gives them their grisly appearance; and it wouldn’t be Halloween without bat cookies, but these blood thirsty creatures have a sweet buttery taste.