Behold! A rare view of Mars seen on TV
Slough: Chocolate factory featured on Channel 4 broadcast
TV viewers were offered a rare glimpse inside the Mars factory in Slough on Tuesday during the latest episode of Snackmasters on Channel 4.
The culinary challenge show, fronted by renowned maître d’ and First Dates star Fred Siriex, visited the chocolate company’s production line in the Trading Estate to find out the secrets behind Snickers.
Thousands of the caramel and peanut-topped nougat bars are made at the site each day.
Chefs Tom Brown and Sabrina Gidda were tasked with cracking the secrets behind the bars before replicating their own takes on the sweet treats.
During the episode it was revealed that the secret ingredient to Snickers is in fact, more Snickers as melted bars are added to the nougat filling to enhance the flavour.
Langley resident Harry Rasheed, an employee at the factory for 28 years, also featured in the show.
Harry followed in the footsteps of his father, Abdul Rasheed, by joining the company as a university graduate in 1992.
His sister, Raheela, is also employed at Mars.
The Langley resident’s first job at the chocolatiers saw him help pack thousands of Snickers bars each shift.
He told the Express: “At that time we had a bar called king-size and we used to pack up to 80 tonnes of snickers between three of us in a nine-hour shift.”
Workers were tasked with lugging 25 kilo bags up the stairs and chopping up butter by hand but much of this work has now been replaced by machines.
The 52-year-old, who retired in May last year only to return seven months later, added: “A lot of the automation that happened was to take all the manual and laborious tasks out.
“Even packing 80 tonnes of Snickers a shift, it was no fun for my hands.”
Up to 800 Snickers bars can now be packed per minute at the factory, with the factory employing 350 people.
Snackmasters is available to view online at www.channel4.com