BBC show tours the Heck sausage factory
Sausage producer Heck starred on the small screen on 31st July in an episode of BBC2 show Inside the Factory.
The programme saw MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace visiting The Heck Sausage Factory in North Yorkshire to look at the process of producing 97% pork sausages from farm to fork.
Presenter Gregg Wallace and worker Jack Tate in the sausage spicing area of the factory.
Heck is said to be the largest independent sausage company in Britain, and its factory stands at 22,000 square feet with 101 workers.
Every day, the factory produces over 625,000 sausages and 17 different types including chicken and chorizo.
Most pigs head to the abattoir at six months old, and 30% of the meat on a pig is said to be suitable for the sausages.
Around 60 pig farms supply to the Heck factory, and the team are said to prepare and finish the making the product in a matter of hours.
Jack Tate is a worker at Heck who oversees the intake area.
When the pork shoulders arrive, he makes sure they are the right temperature, the right seasoning is added and also collects frozen pork to use.
Speaking on the TV show, he explained that using a mixture of fresh and frozen pork shoulders helps with temperature control, and added: “As the pork is going through the machine, they tend to heat up; so it’s just to help with keeping the temperature of the pork down.”
A total of 97% shoulder meat is used in the Heck factory, but legally a pork sausage can contain just 42% meat which could include skin and fat. Rusk can make up the rest.
Around 370,000 sausages an hour head to the packaging area which is the biggest part of the building, with an average of 32 workers across four lines.
After just one hour and 20 minutes, the sausages reach the sealing process at the end of the line.
The programme reported that Heck sausages will then be on the shelves of 10,000 British supermarkets in the space of just two days.
To watch the programme on BBC iPlayer, click here.
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