With its ingredients of just flour, water and salt, sourdough bread may seem to be one of life’s simpler and unambiguous pleasures. But it is now under scrutiny in a government review over the longstanding claims that a “sourfaux” scandal is undermining the traditional genuine loaf.
The Real Bread Campaign, a project run by Sustain, the non-profit alliance for better food and farming, says supermarket chains and industrial bakeries are misleading customers, selling loaves labelled as “made with sourdough” for as little as £1.20.
The factory-made loaves can contain as many as 15 ingredients, including palm oil and commercial yeast.
Chris Young, coordinator of the Real Bread Campaign, said new bread labelling rules need to be imposed on supermarkets and leading bread companies to protect smaller-scale traditional bakeries. The campaigners have complained of a “sourfaux free-for-all”.
He said: “We believe many people are being misled when they are buying their bread. Making sourdough is a slower process. We would want the definition to be ‘bread made without additives and using a live sourdough starter culture’.”
The government has formed a bread and flour technical working group to review the regulations, and the Real Bread Campaign has submitted a raft of proposals for a radical overhaul of bread labelling.
Ministers have confirmed that the working group is examining the use of the word sourdough – “to assess whether providing a definition of sourdough would be beneficial to consumers”.
They are also being urged to crack down on supermarkets’ use of the phrase “freshly baked”. Supermarket bakeries have been accused of being “loaf tanning salons” in which part-baked and sometimes frozen bread is run through an oven again shortly before sale.
Britain’s bread market is worth about £4bn a year and in recent years there has been an increase in the number of independent bakeries. Craft bakeries still account for just 5% of the bread market by value; large-scale bakeries account for about 75% and in-store bakeries 20%.
Instead of commercial yeast, sourdough bread is made with naturally occurring yeasts in a fermented flour-and-water mix called the “starter”. It takes significantly longer to ferment and rise than bread with added yeast. Research has shown that sourdough bread is a much richer source of minerals, including magnesium, iron and zinc.
While a genuine sourdough loaf in a traditional bakery typically costs at least £3.50, supermarkets are offering loaves labelled “with sourdough” at about a third of that price. Small bakeries say they are being undermined by what they consider is not really sourdough.
Charlotte Nemeth, 24, co-owner with her husband, Dan, 40, of the award-winning Seasons Bakery, which operates in a former village school in Ingleton in the Yorkshire Dales, said: “We want to encourage people to buy sourdough because it is healthier for them, but they ask about the cost and why they can buy it for less than £2 in the supermarket. We need a legal definition that says sourdough bread is just made from flour, water and salt.”
Dan Nemeth added that their bakery produces about 10,000 sourdough loaves a week, supplying local food distributors, a restaurant and two shops. The loaves retail at £3.85 each.
He said a traditionally baked loaf and a factory-produced one were two “totally separate products”, adding: “It may be a cheaper option if you have a product containing additives, preservatives and yeast, but it is not genuine sourdough.”
Supermarket shoppers can pick up a Sainsbury’s 800g white farmhouse loaf “with sourdough” for just £1.30. The bread contains just 3.5% sourdough, along with rapeseed oil, palm oil, soya flour and a flour treatment agent. A Tesco 800g finest white loaf “with sourdough” costs £1.20 and contains emulsifiers and added yeast.
Campaigners do not believe the term sourdough should be permitted on such products. They support the sale of genuine sourdough loaves in supermarkets, but say products should be properly labelled. An investigation by the consumer watchdog Which? in 2018 found that just four out of 19 supermarket sourdough loaves tested could be regarded as authentic. The UK bakery industry proposed a code of practice in 2019 for the labelling of sourdough bread and rolls. It said where “space and skills were lacking” there were an increasing number of ingredients that could simplify the process. The proposals were rejected by the Real Bread Campaign as a “cheats’ charter”.
The Real Bread Campaign’s submission to the government working group says: “When it comes to sourdough, leaving it to ‘the market’ to self-regulate clearly is not working.”
The campaign proposes a new legal definition of bread, a legal definition of sourdough, a requirement to display ingredients for all bakery products, and legal definitions of “fresh”, “freshly baked” and “baked in store”.
It says supermarkets and large retailers market products as freshly baked or baked in store that may have been manufactured, pre-baked and frozen off-site. The campaign says complaints about the marketing descriptions of bread to the Advertising Standards Authority and trading standards officers have been rejected on the grounds that without legal definitions they are unable to judge whether the terms are being used misleadingly. It says the government’s response to date to its proposals suggests it would prefer to see self-regulation and there is an “unwillingness to take the action necessary on this issue”.
The government has promised to launch a consultation on potential amendments to the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 in the summer. A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Food information is robustly regulated in the UK and must not mislead consumers. This includes claims such as ‘fresh’ and ‘baked in store’.
“There are continuing discussions on the use of ‘sourdough’ – and while regulation is an option, we encourage further work on the draft industry code of practice which could help achieve better understanding.”
Retailers say they comply with all regulations in the sale and marketing of sourdough bread. Sainsbury’s said concerned customers buying loose bakery products should ask a member of staff for ingredient information, or check online.