Pap's got a brand new bag. Copyright: Aldi, fair usage
Real Bread Campaign’s Aldi half-white ‘wholemeal’ win
Intervention results in retailer changing loaf label and marketing.
Following protracted pursuit of its June 2022 complaint, the Real Bread Campaign has learned that Aldi has removed the claim ‘a perfect blend of white and wholemeal flour’ from the label of its ‘Both in One’ loaf.
Real Bread Campaign coordinator Chris Young said: ‘The law is clear that the word wholemeal can only be used to name or advertise a product if all the flour is wholemeal. This case took far too long but we got there.’
The change follows the Campaign’s investigations leading to Iceland discontinuing its ‘White and Wholemeal’ loaf in January 2023, and Sainsbury's relabelling its ‘Both in One’ product in October 2023. The Campaign still has not received updates from trading standards officers investigating similar complaints made at the same time about Hovis, Jacksons, Lidl and Warburtons.
Background
In June 2022, the Campaign found seven well-known brands using the word wholemeal in the name and / or marketing of products made with only 50% wholemeal flour. The Campaign highlighted to the companies that Regulation 6 of The Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 demand that: ‘There shall not be used in the labelling or advertising of bread, as part of the name of the bread, whether or not qualified by other words […] the word 'wholemeal’ unless all the flour used as an ingredient in the preparation of the bread is wholemeal.’ [our italics]
Six of the companies declined to amend their marketing and so the Campaign submitted trading standards complaints. In October 2023, Defra confirmed to trading standards officers that the Regulations “prohibit the use of the term wholemeal in the naming of advertising of these products.”
In January 2024, Defra assured the Campaign that use of the word wholemeal would be included in guidance issued to accompany the forthcoming Bread and Flour Regulations amendment. The amended Regulations were enacted in November 2024 and in February 2025 Defra advised that the guidance would be published within a month.
See also
Real Bread Campaign: Finding and sharing ways to make bread better for us, our communities and planet.
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