What is Real Bread?

Everyone has their own idea of what Real Bread is. Here's the Real Bread Campaign's clear-cut, universally-inclusive basic definition:

Real Bread is made without chemical raising agents, so-called processing aids or any other additives*

Sounds simple, eh? That's because it is.

Sadly (depending on whose figures you believe) around 95%+ of what is sold as 'bread' in the UK falls short of this very low bar.

Genuine sourdough is Real Bread leavened using only a live sourdough starter culture - no additional or alternative raising agents, such as baker's yeast.

Find Real Bread Look for The Loaf Mark

Add your Real Bread bakery to our map

*The only exceptions we make are for so-called 'fortificants' in places where their addition to flour is mandatory. See 'why permit fortificants?'

Ingredients

Real Bread can be made using as few as three ingredients - flour, water and salt. This proves that, by definition, additives are totaly unnecessary. See also 'why no additives?'

There's no limit to the number of ingredients that can be used to make Real Bread, though. Real Bread bakers might also choose to include baker's yeast, seeds, nuts, cheese, milk, malt extract, herbs, oils, fats and dried fruits etc. as long as they themselves contain no additives.

Reclaim the name

We believe that our universally-inclusive definition of Real Bread should be the key criterion in the legal definition of bread full stop.

Why should bakers who make bread in a time-honoured, natural way have to qualify it with 'real', 'artisan', 'craft' and the like? We say let's reclaim the name bread and leave it to the industrial dough fabricators to come up with a new name for their additive-laden products.

While we're on the subject, when referring to additive-laden industrial dough products, please don't use the noble name of bread, even if qualified with other words. No more 'cotton wool bread', 'factory bread', 'chemical bread', 'supermarket bread', 'plastic bread', 'sliced bread', 'shop bought bread' etc.

Not all Real Bread is sourdough

While all genuine sourdough is Real Bread, not all Real Bread is made by the sourdough process. Real Bread can also be unleavened or made using baker's yeast

Contrary to a common misperception/misunderstaning, we have nothing against baker's yeast*. Real Bread can be made using it and a skilled baker can make great bread with it.

* By which we mean Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is sold in fresh, liquid, and dried active forms.

Always read the label...

...of each ingredient you use to be sure it is additive-free. If any has one or more additives, what you make with it won't be what we call Real Bread.

Pay particular attention to yeast sold as 'quick' or 'fast acting' - almost all brands we've seen in the UK contain additives. Also take care when choosing flour and reject any containing E300, alpha amylase or other non-mandatory additives. That said, the last time we checked one UK mill doesn't declare the additive it includes in most of its flour.

Pan global

Real Bread isn't a look, shape or style. It can be a hand-shaped, basket-proved, crusty, wholemeal, heritage grain boule with big holes in it, pulled fresh from a wood-fired oven by a true artisan baker...but doesn't have to be!*

Our universally-inclusive definition encompasses every type of additive-free baked, steamed, fried, roasted, griddled bread: bap, bagel, bialy, injera, wrap, khobez, baguette, chleb, naan, chapatti, roti, stottie cake, lavash, ruisleipä, ciabatta, bara brith, Staffordshire oatcake, tortilla, paratha, porotta, pitta, pida… the list goes on around the globe. 

A sliced white sandwich tin loaf can be Real Bread - it's just that industrial loaf fabricators usually choose to exclude their products by using additives.

*On the flipside, watch out for products that look like this that are in fact made using additives.

Who is Real Bread made by and for?

Real Bread is made and enjoyed by people of every age, nationality, colour, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnic heritage, differing ability, neurological status, religion/faith (or none), economic background, and identity, who speak every language and dialect worldwide. 

We continue to address issues of affordability and other challenges to people being able to access Real Bread.

What Real Bread isn't

Ultra Processed Food.

Amongst the additives not used in Real Bread making are: Baking powder and other chemical raising agents; ascorbic acid; xanthan gum; added enzymes or any other so-called 'processing aids'.

This exclusion applies to any additives in the flour (other than mandatory 'fortificants'), yeast, 'improver', mix or other ingredients you use.

Gluten-free Real Bread

The Campaign celebrates gluten-free Real Bread. Unfortunately, the situation for people who want to avoid additives seems to be even harder for those who also need (or, for some reason, want) to avoid gluten.

Read more

The vast majority of commercial gluten-free products fail to meet our simple additive-free criterion and we are not aware of many independent gluten-free Real Bread bakeries. 

• If you bake gluten-free Real Bread for sale, please add your details to our Real Bread Map.
• If you've created a recipe for any type of gluten-free Real Bread that you’d be happy for us to publish in our recipes section please email it (ideally with a 1200x800pixel photo) to realbread@sustainweb.org

We have reached out to Coeliac UK a number of times, suggesting we work together on discovering and championing gluten-free Real Bread. Sadly they have declined, apparently preferring to accept and advocate the use of additives instead. Our door remains open!

Better bred bread

Not all loaves are created equal!

From our simple 'no additives' starting point, the Real Bread Campaign finds and shares ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet.

There is evidence that there might be benefits of using:

• Sourdough fermentation.
• Wholemeal or other higher extraction / less-refined flours.
• Stoneground flour.
• A single, continuous process (i.e. no part-baking or freezing of the dough).
• Locally-milled flour.
• Lower salt levels.
• Certified biodynamic or organic ingredients.
• Ancient or heritage grains.

Please see our FAQs page for reasons why.

Is Real Bread the same as craft, artisan, fresh, organic etc?

Sometimes but not always.

• There is no legal definition of artisan baker / bread. This has led to the Advertising Standards Authority rejecting our complaints about industrial loaf products being marketed using these terms.
• Craft baker / bread are terms that have no legal definition. Some people who identify as being craft bakers don't use additives, while others do. Even the Craft Bakers Association seems to avoid defining what a craft baker is. Might this be because their sponsors/supporters include a number of manufacturers and suppliers of additives?
• Many bakers with organic certification choose not to use any additives but, unlike our Real Bread definition, organic standards do allow some to be used.
• There are no legal defintions of a whole range of marketing terms including traditional, natural, finest ingredients, farmhouse, and heritage. None guarantees a loaf was made without additives.
• Claims of freshness do not guarantee that a product is additive-free, or even that the bread has been made from scratch that day. Despite official guidance from the Food Standards Agency, claims such as 'freshly baked', 'baked in store' and 'baked today/every day' are used to market 'bake-off' products: i.e. made elsewhere, chilled or frozen and then re-baked in a shop's loaf tanning salon.*

The only way to be sure if a product is Real Bread is by reading the ingredients list or (if the baker/retailer doesn't display one) ask a member of staff for it. As a visual aid to support this, we run The Real Bread Loaf Mark scheme.

Read our call for an Honest Crust Act of better composition, labelling and marketing standards.

Better still, support our charity's work lobbying for these improvements, as well as finding and sharing ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet.

Sourdough

The Real Bread Campaign believes that to be named or marketed using the word sourdough, bread must be:

• Made without any additives (ie the criterion for our basic definition of bread).
• Leavened only using a live sourdough culture, without the addition of baker's yeast or other raising agents.

Read more about sourdough and sourfaux

Why permit so-called fortificants?

This is not something we do willingly. The alternative, however, is to say that in the UK (and elsewhere that there are mandatory flour additives) Real Bread can only be made from wholemeal and non-wheat flours.

While we very much advocate wholemeal flour and bread, we believe that people should have the chance to choose white or brown Real Bread as well.