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The Real Bread Campaign, part of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming,
is funded by the Big Lottery's Local Food programme and the Sheepdrove Trust. |
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Pappy Birthday
‘The people of Britain need to be reminded that bread isn’t just something to keep your fingers dry when eating a sandwich.’
Andrew Wheeler, Eat Britain! 101 Great British Tastes
As you might have noticed from recent media coverage generated by the Real Bread Campaign, July 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the Chorleywood ‘Bread’ Process (CBP). Within a decade of its launch, CBP become the standard commercial method of production, and today continues to be the method by which around 80% of British industrial loaves are made.
Click here for our home movie of the long-overdue retirement of the Chorleywood 'Bread' Process
Pappy birthday card
Well done to Isaac Hickenbottom, whose design for a pappy birthday card to the CBP loaf (as judged by chef Michel Roux Jr, master baker Tom Herbert; and artist and writer Jake Tilson) wins him a Real Bread baker’s kit (worth £85) from Hobbs House Bakery.
Download the card
Large (to print as a full colour poster to display on a wall/in a window)
Small (to email or post online on your website or blog)
Send the card
To whom you send your pappy birthday message is up to you. In case you think that a manufacturer or retailer of wrapped sliced loaves is the most appropriate recipient of your card (or other correspondence), here are some contact details* for the major players.
The Federation of Bakers
Gordon Polson (Director)
6 Catherine Street
London
WC2B 5JW
gordon.polson@bakersfederation.org.uk
Represents the wrapped sliced baking industry.
Premier Foods (Hovis)
Robert Schofield (CEO)
Tim Kelly (COO)
Hovis Court
P O Box 527
69 Alma Road
Windsor, Berks.
SL4 3HD
www.britishbakeries.co.uk
Hovis@premierfoods.co.uk
Allied Bakeries Limited
Mark Fairweather (CEO)
1 Kingsmill Place
Vanwall Road
Vanwall Business Park
Maidenhead
Berks. SL6 4UF
www.alliedbakeries.co.uk
careline@alliedbakeries.co.uk
Warburtons Limited
Jonathan Warburton (Executive Chairman)
Robert Higginson (Managing Director)
Back o' th' Bank House
Hereford Street
Bolton BL1 8HJ
www.warburtons.co.uk
The largest three of the wrapped/sliced manufacturers. You can find more at the Federation's website here.
Asda
Andy Clarke (CEO)
Asda
Asda House
Southbank
Great Wilson Street
Leeds
LS11 5AD
andy.clarke@asda.co.uk
Customer service contact
Marks & Spencer
Marc Bolland (CEO)
Marks & Spencer
Chester Business Park
Wrexham Road
Chester
CH4 9GA
marc.bolland@marks-and-spencer.com
Customer service contact
Morrisons
Dalton Philips (CEO)
Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC
Hilmore House
Gain Lane
Bradford
BD3 7DL
dalton.philips@morrisonsplc.co.uk
Customer service contact
Sainsbury’s
Justin King (CEO)
Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd
33 Holborn
London
EC1 N2HT
justin.king@sainsburys.co.uk
Customer service contact
Tesco
Philip Clarke (CEO)
Tesco
New Tesco House,
Delamare Road,
Cheshunt,
Herts,
EN8 9SL
Philip.clarke@uk.tesco.com
Customer service contact
Waitrose
Mark Price (Managing Director)
Waitrose
Waitrose Central Offices
Southern Industrial Area
Bracknell
Berkshire
RG12 8YA
mark_price@waitrose.co.uk
Customer service contact
* as of 8th July, we believe these to be correct, but if your find otherwise please let us know.
Notes on the Chorleywood 'Bread' Process
The following article contains extracts of Pappiness in Your Hands, a feature by Emily Earhart for the July-September 2011 edition of True Loaf, the Real Bread Campaign membership magazine.
CBP: past its use by date?
War Child
The predominance of CBP in Britain today is the result of increasing industrialisation of the food industry after World War II and the market capitalist interests that accompanied this transition, reducing bread to a cheap (or should one say cheapened?), time efficient, energy intensive food source.
After the war, the UK government joined forces with the baking sector to create the British Baking Industries Research Association (BBIRA) in the Hertfordshire village of Chorleywood, a partnership meant to strengthen and protect both the British baking industry and British wheat farmers. BBIRA’s studies resulted in a controlled energy batch mixing without bulk fermentation that required additional inputs: oxidising agents, emulsifiers, extra yeast, preservatives, and lots of water to adjust the consistency. This process also required large volumes of refrigerated water to cool down the dough, which had been heated by the energy intensive mixing. Thus in July 1961 the Chorleywood ‘Bread Process’, a high input, no time, energy intensive process was born.
What’s wrong with the modern factory loaf?
As we have noted on our FAQs page, a growing number of studies suggest that Real Bread produced with longer dough fermentation times (especially in the presence of sourdough bacteria) could have positive implications in certain aspects of health and nutrition, including digestibility. By contrast, CBP employs a whole cocktail of artificial additives – some deemed ‘processing aids’ and legally not listed on the label – to cut the proving time down to tens of minutes. We believe the resulting dough to be ‘unripe’ and ask whether this could have a detrimental effect on more than just flavour.
Toasting the future
As we face the future of bread in this country, we must ask, what do we value in bread? Is it the height or squishiness of a loaf as CBP marketers might have us believe? Is it the reduction of time and cost as BBIRA sought? Or is bread about embracing time, flavour, community, and craft? We believe that a future for bread in Britain that embraces its true values and conserves resources is far more likely to protect and preserve the interests, health, and culture of the British people than improvers, emulsifiers, and preservatives.
Campaign members will be able to read a full article on CBP in the July - September 2011 issue of True Loaf.
Chorleywood Village Day
As part of the annual Chorleywood Village Day on 9 July, Real Bread Campaign members took a factory loaf across the village common to the Beaumont House Care Home, formerly the British Baking Industry Research Association building, for its long-overdue retirement.
See our news page for the full story. Click here for pictures.
