1In 1898, several baking companies merged to form the National Baking Company, also called Nabisco.
2This was the birth of the organization that would eventually create the Oreo cookie.
3Today, Oreo cookies are produced at factories in 18 countries all over the world.
4These factories help produce a whopping 40 billion cookies per year.
5So, how do they do it?
6For Oreo cookies, hand making isn't an option
7since the sheer amount each factory has to produce is impossible to do by hand.
8For this purpose, the Oreo factory is full of heavy-duty machinery,
9equipped to churn out more than one billion cookies each year.
10The main ingredients essential to the cookie making process are flour, sugar, cocoa powder,
11vegetable oil, leavening agents, such as baking soda and baking powder,
12salt, flavorings, and vanilla cream filling.
13These are sourced from different producers
14and are approved by a quality control team after they arrive at the factory.
15The next step is preparing the batter.
16A worker unloads heaps of sugar into an industrial-grade mixer.
17Next, he adds two kinds of cocoa,
18both types are processed beforehand to make them milder and smoother.
19The cocoa gives the Oreo cookies their signature look and taste.
20A pre-mix of salt and other ingredients follows.
21A specially formulated canola oil mixture will help these dry ingredients form into a batter.
22As huge beaters blend everything together,
23water is added and the batter starts to look like a bubbling chocolate mixture.
24Then, dry ice is added to lower the mixture's temperature.
25This is important because when flour is added,
26the dough will turn out to be less crumbly than it would have been if it was kept at room temperature.
27A pre-mix of leavening ingredients goes in next.
28One final mix and the chocolate dough is ready to go.
29The workers then shovel the cookie dough into a grate
30and press them through the grate into a molding machine.
31This helps portion the large clumps of cookie dough into individual pieces that are crucial for the molding process.
32The molding machine then forms the dough into biscuit shapes.
33It also has the intricate design and logo engraved into a roller that presses it onto the cookies.
34This machine churns out an impressive 5,000 cookies every hour.
35For the baking part of the process,
36the cookies move from a silicon conveyor onto a steel one.
37This is because the excellent thermal properties of the belt deliver efficient baking and a crisp, attractive base
38while the hard, smooth surface ensures easy clean product release.
39The cookies then travel through an 85-meter long industrial-grade oven for several minutes
40and receive an even baking.
41While the cookies are being cooled, the vanilla cream filling is prepared.
42The filling is made from a mixture of powdered sugar, vegetable shortening, vanilla flavoring,
43and sometimes other ingredients to achieve a desired taste and texture.
44Once the vanilla filling is prepared, it is loaded onto a pump.
45The pump is a device that allows controlled and precise dispensing of the filling.
46The filling is poured into a hopper or container attached to the pump.
47On the other side, once the cookies are cool to the desired crispness,
48they're ready for assembly.
49They move to another conveyor which feeds into a series of chutes.
50The biscuits travel over ramps designed to make them fall into a certain orientation;
51one side lands plain side up while the other one lands with the engraved side up.
52This puts them in the correct position for the all-important cream filling.
53A cylindrical pump deposits the vanilla filling onto the plain side of the biscuits.
54These biscuits then travel to a station where machinery presses the top biscuit onto the bottom one.
55Once the cookies have been assembled, mechanical fingers separate them into bunches,
56then grippers swing into action and move each bunch forward and then release it into plastic trays.
57The entire cookie making process takes about 90 minutes,
58churning out 3,000 cookies every minute.
59The trays, now full of biscuits, move on to the quality control station.
60At the QC station, the Oreo cookies undergo quality control checks
61to ensure they meet the company's standards.
62Once approved, they are packaged into larger boxes or containers
63and shipped to distribution centers
64where they are then sent to retailers for sale.
65This iconic cookie is available in more than a hundred countries around the globe,
66and approximately 34 billion are sold each year.