Brits 'horrified' after watching clip showing how Quavers are really made

If a bag of Quavers regularly features in your meal deal line-up, you might want to look away now.

A host of Brits have said they will never look at the curly crisps the same again after finding out exactly how they are made.

I guess some things really are best left a mystery, as people are pretty grossed out after discovering what goes down before Quavers eventually hit the shelves.

As part of the BBC's Inside The Factory series, Paddy McGuinness headed to the snack hub in Lincoln to get a glimpse of the intricate process.

In the episode which aired earlier this month, the comedian took a tour of the firm's starch plant, which has been the home of Quavers for over 50 years.

A whopping 500 million packs of the popular cheese curls are produced every year, so it's clear there's still a lot of demand for the crisp which has been going in the UK since 1968.

Brits were left taken aback from the outset, as it was promptly revealed that Quavers aren't even technically classed as crisps.

I mean, do me a Quaver - our whole lives have essentially been an entire lie.

The Quaver creation process left a lot of viewers with a bad taste in their mouths (BBC)

It turns out that because the little coils of cheesy goodness are made from the potato starch powder left behind during the crisp-making process, they aren't officially deemed crisps.

Bonkers, right? But the worst was still yet to come for a lot of people tuning in.

McGuinness then got into the important part and showed viewers the long and tedious process which is involved in creating Quavers.

So, how are Quavers made?

Starch powder, fine rice and soya flours are shoved into a huge mixer, before a 'mild seasoning' consisting of salt, pepper, onion powder and yeast is added.

This mixture is then combined with water to create a dough, which is thoroughly mixed.

Then, the dough is forced through a machine known as an extruder, which shapes materials by forcing it through a specially designed opening under very high pressure - like when you make pasta.

A one-millimetre-thick sheet of this then emerges from the other end that sort of resembles a lasagne sheet.

From there, the dough is stretched over rollers to add tension, before it heads on a journey through an 18-metre-long steamer.

During this process, the moisture level in the dough is raised to 40 percent, making the concoction more pliable and stretchy - and therefore easier to manipulate into that iconic curl shape.

It is then quickly cooled and cut into 13 millimetre by 40 millimetre pellets by a machine at a staggering rate of 7,900 a minute, before these smaller sections are plonked in sunflower oil to cook.

Every hour, a staggering 1.2 tonnes of pellets travel through a specialist fryer and into the oil, which is heated to 200 degrees Celsius.

This temperature turns any remaining water inside of the dough into steam - puffing them up and leaving tiny air holes.

The dough wasn't the most appealing thing to look at (BBC)

Dually, the tension created when the dough was stretched starts to contract and curl up.

After just 20 seconds in the sunflower oil, millions of perfect curls tumble out of the fryer every hour, before the pièce de résistance is then finally brought in.

The crunchy curls then travel through a huge metal drum where a precise amount of cheese powder flavouring is added, coating them in that delicious taste we all know and love.

And that's how Quavers are made - but a lot of viewers reckon they were best off being left in the dark about the origins of the household favourite.

One said: "#InsideTheFactory is interesting and horrifying in equal measure. Industrialised production of 'food' ain't pretty."

Another wrote: "My mum after watching inside the factory, 'I’ll never think about Quavers the same again'."

A third added: "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."

Others confessed they were left with quite the hankering for a bag of Quavers after watching the BBC show.

"Watching Inside The Factory and now I want Quavers," one said.

A second commented: ""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."

While a third chimed in: "Do I give a flying fig how they make Quavers?"