Loaf-tanning salon lies?

Ever walked into a supermarket and caught the aroma of what seems to be just-made bread? Maybe you’ve then followed your nose to a tempting display of unwrapped loaves, perhaps in wicker baskets on wooden shelves, like you’d expect to see in a local artisan/craft bakery. 

Gram for gram, these products cost more than the plastic-wrapped, additive-laden factory stuff in the next aisle, but surely they’re worth the extra? After all, the labels and signs promise you they were ‘freshly baked in-store today’ or similar. So you pick up the tongs and slip a reassuringly-expensive, non-UPF loaf into a paper bag, comforted that it cost less than Real Bread from an independent bakery, so it’s still a bargain, right? 

The Real Bread Campaign’s (Not so great) British Fake Off investigations reveal that:

• None of the UK’s 10 largest supermarket chains bakes everything from scratch in all of its stores.
• Some of the chains make nothing from scratch in any of their stores. 
• Many products are manufactured elsewhere and merely re-baked in-store.
• Some products are frozen for transport and storage between manufacture and re-baking.
• Some products are manufactured outside the UK.

Rather than presenting to shoppers the full facts of when, where, how and by whom products were made (on labels, in-store signage, and online), supermarkets are generally choosing to spin different stories to influence people’s buying choices.

How is a shopper to know which products in a particular store were genuinely made when, where, how and by whom the chain’s marketing claims? Good question…

The Campaign believes that much of the ‘in-store bakery’ information and marketing presented by supermarkets is misleading by omission, compounded by alternative storytelling in words and display/merchandising, so has submitted trading standards complaints about seven of the chains, and is investigating an eighth.

The Campaign publishes examples of marketing claims on its Facebook page.

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What this is not

To be clear, the Campaign’s complaints aren’t that supermarket chains are making cheap products widely available, it’s about how companies are marketing them. We work towards everyone being able to choose Real Bread and be able to make better-informed choices.

Dropping, or revising, misleading claims, while presenting honest and transparent information about when, where and how a product was made, will not affect the price and availability of products. Nor will this work have any effect on people who shop mainly/only based on price, availability and personal preference.

In fact, given that supermarkets charge a premium for some bake-off products (compared to other products on their shelves), full labelling and more honest marketing might lead to a reduction in people’s willingness to pay that premium, which could result in prices falling…

Half-baked truths 

The truth is that many ‘freshly baked’ products displayed in supermarket ‘in-store bakery’ sections were not baked there, they were merely RE-baked – baked for a second time – in what the Campaign calls a loaf tanning salon. This is a fundamentally different process, with potential costs to the shopper, the environment, and to the local economy and jobs.

What are known as ‘bake-off’ products are manufactured at central production units (some of which are overseas), where they are chilled or frozen for transport and storage. The prefabricated products are delivered to stores, where they are loaded into ovens to be re-baked according to a pre-set programme to brown and crisp the crust. According to reports the Campaign has received, some re-baked pre-fabricated products might not even be sold on the day that they are re-baked, perhaps being held over until a day or more later.

The Campaign has not seen any of the supermarket chains in question clearly stating when, where and how particular products are manufactured, which we believe is misleading by omission. Most of the chains then make claims, and merchandise/display products, in ways that imply – or clearly state – that the products were made/baked in-store, which the Campaign believes further breaches a number of food law and other consumer protection regulations.  

The complaints

As of 4 July 2024, the Campaign had complained to the local authorities with the Primary Authority relationship for trading standards with seven of the UK’s ten largest supermarket chains. For full details and updates of a particular case, click on the ‘complaint submitted’ link.

Tesco 

• Claims include: ‘Expertly baked in store since 1968’, ‘baking fresh from our ovens every day’, ‘freshly baked throughout the day’.
• The truth: Tesco makes some bread from scratch in a small minority (under 2%) of its stores, but also makes these claims in stores that only make some products from scratch, and in stores where nothing is made from scratch. The company sells one or more ‘bakery’ products that were manufactured outside the UK, but does not state this fact on the label or website. The ‘expertly baked in store…’ claim is not representative of the company as a whole, and is made in stores that did not even exist in 1968.
• Complaint submitted to the trading standards department of Hertfordshire County Council on 28 May 2024.

Sainsbury’s

• Claims include: ‘Freshly made every day’ and ‘freshly baked bread’, 'freshly baked in store every day’ 
• The truth: Sainsbury’s makes some bread from scratch in some stores, but also makes these claims in stores that only make some products from scratch, and in stores where nothing is made from scratch. We have been unable to establish whether or not any ‘in store bakery’ products are manufactured outside the UK.
• Complaint submitted to the trading standards department of Oxfordshire County Council on 10 June 2024.

Asda 

• Claims include: ‘Baked in store’ and ‘freshly baked daily’. 
• The truth: Asda makes no bread fresh from scratch in any of its stores. Sells one or more ‘bakery’ products that were manufactured outside the UK, but does not state this fact on the label or website.
• Complaint submitted to the trading standards department of West Yorkshire Joint Services on 3 July 2024. 

Morrisons 

• Claims include: ‘Baked fresh daily’, ‘baked right here’ and ‘baked here every day’. 
• The truth: Morrisons makes some bread from scratch in some stores, but also makes these claims in stores that only make some products from scratch, and in stores where nothing is made from scratch. We have been unable to establish whether or not any ‘in store bakery’ products are manufactured outside the UK.
• Complaint submitted to the trading standards department of West Yorkshire Joint Services on 12 June 2024.

Lidl 

• Claims include: ‘Our fresh in store bakery’, ‘our freshly baked bread favourites’, ‘baked for you throughout the day’. 
• The truth: Lidl makes no bread fresh from scratch in any of its stores. We have been unable to establish whether or not any ‘in store bakery’ products are manufactured outside the UK.
• Complaint submitted to the trading standards department of London Borough of Bexley on 31 May 2023, with additional information sent on 29 April 2024.

Co-op 

• Claims include: ‘Freshly prepared in store daily’, ‘from oven to shelf’.
• The truth: Co-op makes no bread fresh from scratch in any of its stores. Sells one or more ‘bakery’ products that were manufactured outside the UK, but does not state this fact on the label or website.
• Complaint submitted to the trading standards department of Manchester City Council on 30 January 2024.

M&S 

• Claims include: ‘Oven baked in store today’, ‘baking now’, ‘always sold on the day they are baked’ 
• The truth: M&S makes no bread fresh from scratch in any of its stores. Sells one or more ‘bakery’ products that were manufactured outside the UK, but does not state this fact on the label or website.
• Complaint submitted to the trading standards department of Birmingham City Council on 25 June 2024. 

Waitrose 

• Claims include: ‘Baked in store today’ (Wildfarmed brand loaves)
• The truth: Waitrose makes no bread fresh from scratch in any of its stores. We have been unable to establish whether or not any ‘in store bakery’ products are manufactured outside the UK.
• Questions sent to Wildfarmed on 2 July 2024.

Aldi and Iceland make no bread fresh from scratch in any of their stores but the Campaign has not seen either company claiming that they do.

Why this matters

Perhaps some ‘in store bakery’ products are a bit more ‘reassuringly expensive’ than many plastic-wrapped, ultra-processed loaves, but surely it’s worth paying the extra for bread that a baker has just made by round the back, probably without any of those E numbers that you don’t like the sound of? And while you’re avoiding ultra-processed food, you’ll also be supporting skilled jobs in your local community and lower food miles, right?

Shoppers have the right to know if a product has been re-baked and transported from far away, as the process uses around twice as much energy as baking a product once and sold from or near the bakery, and so can have a negative environmental impact. Re-baking also has a negative impact on the quality of a product in that it is likely to stale more quickly than genuinely fresh bread that has only been baked once. This has potential for negative environmental impact as it increases the risk of food waste in the home, at a financial cost to the shopper.

Benefitting from the economy of scale of centralised manufacture; the ability to profit from thousands of high-margin, non-bakery items; and savings of not training and employing skilled bakers in stores enables supermarkets to sell ‘bakery’ products at lower prices than small, independent businesses (that create skilled, meaningful jobs, and help to keep money circulating in local economies) can. The Campaign believes that marketing of the type outlined above is likely to mislead the average shopper and represents unfair competition with small bakeries.

But everyone knows this, so nobody’s being misled

The Campaign has heard a version of this argument more than once. Our response is:

• Isn’t thar just saying nobody’s being misled because everybody knows they’re being lied to?
• We don’t, however, agree that everyone knows that behind a promise such as ‘freshly baked in store today’ could lie the truth that those products, sitting in rustic-looking wicker baskets, were in fact manufactured hundreds of miles away and merely re-baked in store.

The law

Long-standing FSA guidance states: ‘Terms such as “freshly baked”, “baked in store” and “oven fresh” may mislead consumers into believing that they are being offered products that have been freshly produced on site from basic raw materials. Some stores sell bread made from part-baked products that have been packed in an inert atmosphere or frozen off-site then “baked off” at in-store bakeries. Use of terms like “freshly baked”, “baked in store” and “oven fresh” on these products could potentially infringe the general legal provisions…’ 

These provisions include Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, which states that ‘it is a general principle of food law to provide a basis for consumers to make informed choices in relation to food they consume and to prevent any practices that may mislead the consumer.’ More specifically, Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers requires that ‘food information shall not be misleading, particularly: (a) as to the characteristics of the food and, in particular, as to its nature, identity, properties, composition, quantity, durability, country of origin or place of provenance, method of manufacture or production.’

Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 requires that: ‘The name of the food shall include or be accompanied by particulars as to the physical condition of the food or the specific treatment which it has undergone (for example, powdered, refrozen, freeze-dried, quick-frozen, concentrated, smoked) in all cases where omission of such information could mislead the purchaser.’ 

Regulation 5 of The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 states that 'A commercial practice is a misleading action if [...] it contains false information and is therefore untruthful [...] or if it or its overall presentation in any way deceives or is likely to deceive the average consumer [...] even if the information is factually correct; and (b) it causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise.' Regulation 6 states that: ‘A commercial practice is a misleading omission if [it] omits material information [or] hides material information.’

Article 16 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 requires that the: ‘presentation of food or feed, including their shape, appearance or packaging, the packaging materials used, the manner in which they are arranged and the setting in which they are displayed, and the information which is made available about them through whatever medium, shall not mislead consumers.’ 

The look of loaf

Most of the chains merchandise/display ‘bakery’ products in ways that are markedly different from the painted metal shelves used in the rest of the store. Typically this includes wicker baskets and wooden (or wood-effect) shelving, generally providing tongs for customers to self-select products and slide them into paper bags. A Tesco media release stated that the intention of such merchandising was ‘creating a friendlier artisan feel’ and ‘the kind of atmosphere you’d find in an artisan bakery with wooden shelves.’ The Campaign visited one M&S store that had a little bell beneath a large ‘baking now’ sign, which a staff member could ring to draw attention to, and reinforce, the claim above it. 

The Campaign believes that companies presenting re-baked factory products as if freshly made in an artisan bakery breaches this regulation, particularly as these physical and visual cues amplify - and are amplified by – the ‘freshly baked in store today’ type claims.

We see this as pulling the cynical stunt of undercutting the typical price of a loaf hand-crafted at a local bakery (at a much, much smaller scale), while simultaneously being more ‘reassuringly expensive’ than other mass-produced loaves the company sells. Combined with the written claims and merchandising, the pricing helps a company to effectively promise: ‘we’re offering you a premium, artisan bakery product at a bargain price.’ 

A long time ago in a factory far, far away

Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 requires that: ‘The indication of the country of origin or of the place of provenance of a food should be provided whenever its absence is likely to mislead consumers as to the true country of origin or place of provenance of that product.’ The regulation goes on to state: ‘In all cases, the indication of country of origin or place of provenance should be provided in a manner which does not deceive the consumer and on the basis of clearly defined criteria which ensure a level playing field for industry and improve consumers’ understanding of the information related to the country of origin or place of provenance of a food.’

By law, four so-called ‘fortificants’ have to be added to all non-wholemeal wheat flour sold in the UK and listed on ingredients lists of products made using it. The Campaign has found a number of bake-off product ingredients lists from which these ‘fortificants’ are absent. They include:

• ‘ASDA Extra Special Apple Raisin & Cinnamon Fruit Loaf’
• ‘Co-op Irresistible Freshly Prepared White Sourdough Baguette’ and ‘Co-op Irresistible Freshly Prepared Kalamata Olive Sourdough Bloomer’ 
• M&S white baguette
• ‘Tesco White Sourdough Bloomer’

Possible explanations for this are:

• The company has failed to meet the legal labelling requirement to list the ‘fortificants’.
• The product was manufactured from 100% extraction wheat flour (which does not have to be ‘fortified’) but the company omitted the word ‘wholemeal’.
• The product is manufactured in the UK from illegally-sold unfortified non-wholemeal wheat flour.
• The product is legally manufactured overseas, imported and merely re-baked in-store at a later date, and the company has failed to declare these facts on labels or point of sale displays. 

If companies are indeed selling products that were manufactured outside the UK, without disclosing their true origins, the company is depriving shoppers of important information that the Campaign believes further contributes to unfair competition with bakeries that make bread fresh from scratch in the UK. 

If companies are misleading customers by omission in this way, the Campaign believes that they further breach regulations with claims and merchandising that state and imply an alternative time, place and means of production.

An Honest Crust Act

As well as looking at specific cases, the Real Bread Campaign continues its 15+ years of lobbying successive governments for updated and improved composition, labelling and marketing standards.

Amongst other points, our proposals include: 

• Meaningful, legal definitions of 'fresh', 'freshly baked' and related terms, limited to the marketing of products that were made from scratch in the past 12 hours, without the use of artificial preservatives. Not to be used for 'bake-off' products.
• A legal definition of 'bakery' as a place where bread, biscuits, pastries or other baked goods are made from scratch (ie from basic ingredients) on site.
• Displaying full lists of ingredients (plus any and all processing aids and other additives used) being mandatory for every product. This would be printed on wrappers of pre-packed and pre-packed for direct sale (PPDS) products, and on labels or point of sale displays for loose / unwrapped products.

This investigation has generated media coverage including:

• BBC Morning Live (from 9m 40s into the programme)
• The Guardian: Four major UK supermarkets accused of misleading ‘freshly baked’ bread claim
• The Daily Mail: Tesco accused of lying to customers about baking bread fresh in store - when loaves are actually pre-made and defrosted in 'tanning machines'

See also

• The Real Bread Map
• Making bread at home
• Industrial dough fabricators: update