Nearly half (49%) of UK consumers think that most bread available at supermarkets is an ultra-processed food (UPF), according to a 2023 Mintel survey.
“While not all supermarket loaves are technically classified as ultra-processed, there is a perception among consumers that many packaged breads fall into this category,” noted Mintel in its report, “A year of innovation in bread and bread products, 2024”.
Leo Campbell, founder of the UK food brand, Modern Baker, which positions its bread as being as healthy as vegetables, agreed that bread is bearing the brunt of the negative publicity around UPFs.
“The sliced white loaf has become the poster child of the UPF debate. Take Chris van Tullekan’s book: what does it have on the front cover? A loaf of white bread. Whether we like it or not, bread is a UPF. It is a quintessential UPF. But it is no worse than practically every other packaged food category,” Campbell told this publication.
Modern Baker: ‘Bread needs to be fixed, not destroyed or demonised’
Why is it then that bread is taking more of a beating than other UPF categories?
One reason could be because, as a staple in western diets, it makes a larger contribution to the diet than some other UPF categories. The Federation of Bakers reports that bread is purchased by 96.7% of UK households. Although consumption has been declining in recent years, on the back of health concerns and the rise of low carbohydrate diets, bread is still a key component of western diets.
And according to Campbell, its influence is growing internationally, particularly in China, where white toast is now a popular breakfast option.
“And that is why bread needs to be fixed and not destroyed or demonised,” he said.
Real bread vs the Chorleywood Process: How not all breads are created equal
Before looking at how bread can be “fixed”, it’s important to point out that not all bread falls into UPF territory. Achieving clarity on this point is not easy, given that there is no legal definition of a UPF and that the NOVA classifications have been branded inadequate by many.
The UK-based Real Bread Campaign makes the distinction between so called “real bread”, which is made without chemical raising agents, processing aids, or additives, and industrial dough products. It estimates that 80% of products sold as bread in the UK are made by The Chorleywood Process.
This involves high speed mixing, large doses of baker’s yeast and (key to the UPF categorisation) any number of additives, some of which (processing aids) don’t have to be declared on the label. The former falls into NOVA’s ‘processed food’ category, whilst the latter would be considered a UPF.
Innovation efforts: Additive-free, sourdough, and more
Bread manufacturers are using new product development (NPD) to rewrite the narrative and Mintel’s report highlights several examples of innovation in this area. In Norway, Mesterbakeren has launched its first additive-free loaf under its Møllerens brand - Urkraft oat bread with spelt.
Sourdough-focused NPD is another strategy being adopted by bakers in Europe.
“With sourdough’s natural fermentation process and minimal ingredient list, it can be positioned as a favourable, less-processed alternative to industrial breads categorised under UPFs, fulfilling consumers' clean-label preferences,” noted Mintel.
It cited the example of Jason's Sourdough Seeded Protein Bread, which flags up its 'not ultra-processed food' status on its website. This bread, on sale in the UK, is free from additives and preservatives as well as delivering 10g of protein per slice and being a source of fibre.
However, Campbell from Modern Baker argued that innovation within the current nutrient profiling framework is not going to yield solutions, as it does not acknowledge the importance of nutrient density, which is where the improvements are most needed.
The ‘nutritional dark matter’ of a ‘natural diet’
“There are 26,000 biochemicals in the plant world. You get those biochemicals when you eat a natural diet, but when you eat a processed diet you get hardly any, and that gap, known as ‘nutritional dark matter’, is where the solution lies.”
But adding ‘nutrient density’ is not as simple as loading up a recipe with fibre, as not all fibres are equal, according to Campbell.
“That is a desperately inconvenient truth that everybody is avoiding,” he said.
“It’s about loading up food with certain types of fibre - viscous and fermentable fibres rather than the insoluble fibre that accounts for the bulk of fibre content in processed foods. That has been turned to dust, and the body basically treats it like sugar.”
Innovation aids: Soluble not insoluble fibres
He said soluble fibres, which include viscous and fermentable fibres, act differently in the body.
“A viscous fibre will create viscosity in the small intestine and slow down the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream, preventing sugar spikes. So, we need to put viscous fibres back into processed foods,” he explained.
The challenge is that viscous fibres are difficult to run on the high-speed machines used by industrial bakers.
Modern Bakery claims to have found a “hack” that stops it being viscous at the point of production so it can pass through the machine smoothly.
This allows its “challenger loaf” – Superloaf, which is enriched with prebiotic and viscous fibres – to be made by Hovis on an industrial scale.
And Campbell advocates broadening this nutrient-density led approach beyond bread to other processed foods, such a breakfast cereals and pasta, to change diets for the better.
“If you look at everything through a human biology lens or a biochemical lens solutions pop out everywhere. If you choose not to look that way, and just use the nutrient profiling guidelines to guide nutrition, it’s a catastrophe. That’s why things are getting worse not better.”
