A DRONE has flown around York's Nestlé factory site for three days to film footage for a new BBC TV documentary, featuring MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace.

The programme follows the journey of the cocoa bean from its arrival on-site, through its processing, conversion into chocolate and use in making a Kit Kat, before being moved to the distribution site and then on a lorry.

A Nestlé spokesman said the company worked with the production team for nearly nine months to prepare for the filming in February, during which Gregg and a team of 14 spent three days including flying a drone around the site.

He said: "It’s probably the biggest piece of TV work Nestlé has been involved in and was a fantastic experience for all concerned.

"The documentary is a celebratory look at British food manufacturing and other episodes include dairy and baking."

Vikki Geall, head confectioner, said: “I showed Gregg how to temper chocolate, which is the most important thing we do before working with it.

"Gregg asked why we don’t just use one recipe of chocolate for all our bars so I made him a Kit Kat with a different recipe of chocolate and he could see why we care so much about our recipe."

Alex Hutchinson, Nestlé archivist and historian, said the documentary makers were lucky enough to get some previously unseen historic footage of the factory from the Yorkshire Film Archive, and tracked down one of the people in the film."

A programme spokesman said Gregg was filmed helping to unload the cocoa beans as they arrived straight from the Ivory Coast ready for roasting and learned why specific oven temperatures were kept a closely guarded secret.

"Meanwhile, Cherry discovers just how important the aroma of chocolate is to our enjoyment and what keeps us loyal to the chocolate we love," he said.

"Putting the nation’s taste buds to the test, Cherry finds out how childhood memories influence our palates and why we are tuned in to buying British.

"Exploring the history of chocolate in Britain, historian Ruth Goodman rediscovers the ‘chocolate decade’ of the 1930s and how our country quickly became the largest consumer of confectionery in the world.

"Back on the production line, Cherry witnesses the effort that goes into hand decorating chocolates and how Willy-Wonka style spinning machines create Easter Eggs, whilst Gregg finds the finished products stored in a futuristic building with the land space of 2 football pitches, where every single bit of chocolate is moved by hi-tech robots."

* The programme will be shown at 8pm next Wednesday on BBC 2.