Still freshly faked by Morrisons?

Despite an assurance from Morrisons to the Real Bread Campaign and BBC Morning Live in July 2024, it appears that the trading standards complaint submitted by the Campaign on in June 2024 remains unresolved. 

Submitting the latest evidence to West Yorkshire Joint services, Campaign coordinator Chris Young said: ‘We believe that choices Morrisons continues making in the pursuit of profit are still preventing shoppers from making fully-informed choices about the food they buy, and are likely to (mis)lead some shoppers into making different decisions than they would if they knew the truth.’ 

The claims

On 30 March 2025, the Real Bread Campaign visited a Morrisons store in Croydon and found that the company was still using marketing claims that appeared not to accurately or honestly reflect when, where or how products are made. Prominent signage running across the width of the in-store bakery area included the promises:

• BAKED FRESH DAILY
• BAKED FROM SCRATCH DAILY
• OUR FRESH BREAD IS BAKED FROM SCRATCH IN STORE EVERY DAY

To further emphasise what Morrisons denoted and implied through these emphatic statements, there was also a ‘your baker today is’ chalkboard. 
Young said: ‘These claims are representative of many products on display in the bakery area, but not all of them. From what I could find, Morrisons displays nothing to enable shoppers to differentiate between products that were made in store and those that were manufactured elsewhere – or even to suggest that these differences exist.’

Rolls

At one end of the bakery area of the Croydon store, directly below one of the ‘baked from scratch daily’ signs, was a section subheaded by second sign that stated: PICK & MIX ROLLS Baked here EVERY DAY’. To reinforce the written claims, the products were merchandised in wicker baskets of the type the average consumer is likely to associate with an artisan or craft bakery, in which bread is freshly baked from scratch every day.

Though surrounded by ‘freshly baked from scratch in store today’ type claims (and products that were), none of the products in this section was made in store, let alone freshly baked from scratch on the day they are sold.

‘the Best’

Close to the centre of the bakery area was a section headed by a sign promising: ‘the Best BREAD Expertly crafted & baked in store for when only the Best will do’. The packaging denoted that the products were in Morrisons’ ‘premium’ range. This was confirmed by ‘the Best’ branding and on-pack claim: ‘The Best bread is part of our premium collection of baked goods, prepared for you to enjoy at home. Made with quality ingredients and expertly crafted to bring you a little bit of luxury every day.’

To reinforce the written claims, the products were merchandised on wooden shelving of the type the average consumer is likely to associate with an artisan or craft bakery, in which bread is freshly baked from scratch every day.
None of the products in this section was made in store, let alone ‘expertly crafted’ and freshly baked from scratch on the day they are sold.

Misleading by misrepresentation and omission 

Young said: ‘We believe that each and all of the claims listed above misrepresent when, where and how the products in question were manufactured.’ 
While Morrisons is more than willing to make non-mandatory marketing claims, the company seems far less forthcoming with important information about when, where and how the above products are made. From what the Campaign was able to find (or, rather, not find) Morrisons still chooses not to detail any of these manufacturing details. This material information appears to be absent from product packaging, store signage and the company’s website. 

Young commented: ‘The only hint was a very small clock icon and time on ‘the Best’ product bags, but presumably this is for staff information only, as it is not accompanied by anything to help a shopper decode it definitively. We believe that these are not simply missed opportunities but misleading by omission.’
When found and asked (an unnecessary barrier to information), a bakery staff member advised that all products in both of the above sections were manufactured in ‘the factory’ though the staff member did not know where or when.

The rolls and products in ‘the Best’ range were made and initially baked [at a low temperature to stop fermentation, set the crumb and form a pale crust] in ‘the factory’. Staff members merely rebake these products for a short time to brown and crisp the crust. As the outlined in the original trading standards complaint, this is fundamentally different to freshly baking bread from scratch, which has potentially negative consequences for the shopper, local employment / economy, and the environment.

The Campaign asked West Yorkshire Joint Services for details and a timescale for the action the organisation will be taking to ensure Morrisons amends its marketing and information to ensure that both accurately and honestly reflect the time, place and means of production applicable to each and all bakery section products.

See also

• Loaf tanning salon lies? (the Campaign's investigations into the UK's 10 largest supermarket chains)
• Ocado wholemeal is brown bread

Updates

15 April 2025: Croydon responded: 'We are a small team and since this concerns materials supplied by and instructions received from the Morrisons head office, it is appropriate that it is dealt with at a national level. Having reviewed your email, we intend to refer these matters to the Primary Authority for Morrisons to raise with them.'

10 April 2025: As advised by WYJS, we emailed full details of the case to the trading standards department of Croydon Council, where an officer will now have to spend time starting from scratch.

Minutes after emailing Croydon, we received a reply advising: 'We are unable to deal directly with your referral, request or complaint,' referring us to the Citizens Advice Consumer Service.

Citizens Advice does not appear to publish a contact email address to which we can send our compliant and associated written and photographic evidence. We tried the 'Chat with an adviser online' but the on-screen message said 'All our advisers are busy - try again later' and the online form option is only available between 5pm on Friday and 9am on Monday.

We were later able to use the chat facility but were again advised that the only way to submit our written complaint and evidence to Citizens Advice would be at the weekend, outside regular office hours. Eventually, the advisor agreed to raise a case with Croydon's food safety team and gave us that department's email. We sent our complaint to Croydon's food safety (rather than trading standards) team, who soon replied that they had passed it on the the trading standards team.

A trading standards officer responded: 'We will contact West Yorkshire Joint Services about this matter.'

8 April 2025: Despite this being the latest evidence in an existing, national case, the investigating officer at WYJS declined to continue handling it. Instead, the officer advised we should direct this evidence to the trading standards service responsible for the local authority area in which this particular store is based.