UK bans the Chorleywood Process

Its day has come. Credit: Created in Canva. www.realbreadcampaign.org CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0

Published: Wednesday 1 April 2026

The Real Bread Campaign has received leaked information that the government is set to ban the Chorleywood Process.

This is used to fabricate one of the most consumed ultra-processed foods (UPF), around which questions and concerns continue to gather.

Real Bread for everyone

Real Bread Campaign coordinator Chris Young said: ‘Wow! After more than seventeen years of successive governments showing little to no appetite for any of our proposals for a better-bread Britain, this one’s about to go further than we ever asked for or imagined.’

He went on to say: ‘We champion Real Bread, the people who make it, and work towards everyone having the chance to choose it. We’ve never called for a ban on additive-laden industrial dough products, but it seems that’s what’s about to happen.’

Young added: ‘We now look forward to the Big Bakers joining local indies, public sector caterers, and people in their own homes, in making Real Bread available to everyone.’

No official announcement has been made. For updates, you can sign up to the Real Bread Campaign's free mailing list.

What is the Chorleywood Process?

Depending on whose figures you believe, perhaps around 11-13 million loaves are sold every day in the UK. The majority are manufactured by the Chorleywood Process.

This ‘no time’ process involves a cocktail of an oxidising agent and other additives; high melting point fat and / or emulsifier[s] (such as mono and diacetyl tartaric esters of mono and diglycerides of fatty acids, aka E472e or DATEM); more yeast and water than traditional tin loaf recipes; mixing under a partial vacuum; high speed mixing; and minimal fermentation time.

The fully-automated process is faster and more profitable than employing skilled bakers to craft slowly-proved Real Bread by hand. In addition to the process’s contribution to the loss of jobs and local businesses, it has been asked whether there might be displaced and deferred costs, primarily in terms of reported negative health impacts of UPF in our diets.

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Chris Young
Campaign Coordinator
Real Bread Campaign

Chris Young has coordinated the Real Bread Campaign since March 2009. In addition to lobbying for an Honest Crust Act of better loaf composition, labelling and marketing laws in the UK; he created and runs initiatives including: Sourdough September; Real Bread Week; Real Bread For All; Together We Rise, promoting therapeutic/social benefits of bread making; No Loaf Lost surplus reduction guidance; and Lessons in Loaf for schools. He’s the author of the Knead to Know…more microbakery handbook, Slow Dough: Real Bread recipe book and Bake Your Lawn grow-a-loaf guidebook; and edits True Loaf magazine.

From 2014-18, Chris also coordinated Sustain's London Food Link network, which included editing The Jellied Eel magazine and helping to launch and run the Urban Food Awards with the Mayor of London’s office. Chris has pulled on his judge’s wig for BOOM Awards, The Cateys, The Great Taste Awards, The Scottish Bread Championship and The World Bread Awards. In 2017, The School of Artisan Food honoured Chris with its first Fellowship, and in 2025 he was named joint Person of The Year by Slow Food in The UK.

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