People absolutely 'horrified' after finding out how Quavers are actually made

Sometimes, ignorance truly is bliss - well, at least for all the people who have been left seriously 'horrified' after finding out how Quavers are actually made.

Earlier this week, the BBC treated us to an inside look into a factory based in Lincoln where comedian Paddy McGuinness explored exactly how they make 500 million packs of Quavers cheese curls every year.

The episode started off with the revelation that the moreish cheese curls aren't even officially classed as crisps as, unlike crisps, Quavers are made from the potato starch powder left behind during the crisp-making process.

The process, a fairly long and tedious one, starts off with a huge mixer where the starch powder is added, along with equally fine rice and soya flours.

Then a 'mild seasoning' of salt, pepper, onion powder and yeast - but no cheese flavour yet.

The whole lot is mixed with water to create a dough and, after mixing, the dough is forced under very high pressure through an extruder, emerging as a continuous one-millimetre-thick sheet - kind of like a lasagne sheet.

But how do they get their signature Quavers curl?

Well, the dough is stretched over rollers to add tension before traveling through an 18-metre-long steamer, increasing the moisture level in the dough to 40 percent, making it more pliable and stretchy.

After being quickly cooled, the continuous sheet of dough is sent rushing through a machine which chops it into 13 millimetre by 40 millimetre pellets, at a rate of 7,900 a minute.

And it doesn't stop there.

At this point, the pellets contain too much moisture, so they're sent through a series of dryers, bringing the moisture content down to 11 percent.

A whopping 1.2 tonnes of pellets travel through a specialist fryer every hour which sees them plunged into sunflower oil heated to 200 degrees Celsius.

The heat of the oil causes any remaining water inside to turn to steam, puffing them and leaving tiny air holes.

At the same time, the tension created when the dough was stretched now contracts and curls up and, after 20 seconds in the oil, 1.8 million perfectly formed curls cascade out of the fryer every hour.

There's one thing missing from the dough though - the cheese flavouring.

To put that right, each one of the freshly-cooked curls travels through a huge metal drum where a precise amount of cheese powder flavouring is applied and voilà - you finally have yourself a Quaver!

After watching the process, one BBC viewer penned: "#insidethefactory is interesting and horrifying in equal measure. Industrialised production of 'food' ain't pretty."

A second declared: "Watching how Walkers make potato starch to make Quavers is a very good example of the total lack of nutrition in most snack foods. Ultra processed food that has been making us all obese for decades.

"#InsideTheFactory should be required viewing to realise what Big Food is up to."

While a third claimed: "Watching Inside the Factory. And the thing that stresses me out is the fact that I know humans are intelligent. But this is where we still are. Why the f**k did anyone create Quavers. The process?!?!"

Another added: "There's a lot of work goes into making the humble Quaver!"

Others, however, were far from fussed.

"Me: I must start eating less processed food. Also me: I really fancy a bag of Quavers after watching Inside the Factory," joked one X user.

A second hit out: "Do I give a flying fig how they make Quavers?"

"Imagine hating Ultra Processed Food. I've just watched Inside the Factory with Paddy McGuinness making Quavers and cheered at my TV at least 4 times," admitted a final person.

What side of the Quaver are you on?