McVitie’s-owned Pladis is to appear on the BBC Two series of Inside the Factory, broadcast from 8pm tonight (1 August).

During the third series of the show, co-presenters Gregg Wallace and Cherry Healey have gained access to some of the largest factories in the UK to reveal the secrets behind production.

In tonight’s episode, Wallace visits the McVitie’s factory in London, which produces 80 million biscuits a day. He follows the production of McVitie’s chocolate digestives, from the arrival of 28 tonnes of flour right through to dispatch.

He also discovers that the biscuits are shaped by a bronze roller, costing up to £10,000, and that the chocolate is added to the bottom not the top of the biscuits.

Healey visits Nottingham University’s sensory lab to find scientific proof that dunking a biscuit in a cup of tea improves the flavour. She also visits the chocolate refinery in Manchester to witness how it is transported in heated lorries to stop it from solidifying on its way to the factory.

Meanwhile, historian Ruth Goodman investigates the link between biscuits and digestion, and discovers that, during the Victorian era, biscuits could cure everything from typhoid to scarlet fever.

Pladis is the third company to feature on the latest series, following on from tea producer Typhoo and pasta manufacturer Barilla.