Waitrose 'in-store bakery' marketing

On 3 March 2025, the Campaign submitted a complaint about Waitrose to the trading standards department of London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in which area the Sustain office is based. 

The case

In July 2024, the Real Bread Campaign looked at Waitrose as part of its investigations of supermarket in-store ‘bakery' marketing.

From its research, the Campaign understands that Waitrose makes no bread fresh from scratch in any of its stores. All ‘bakery’ section loaves are manufactured at central production units, at least one of which is outside the UK. The products are then merely re-baked in-store. The Campaign has been unable to find evidence of how the company communicates all of this important information to customers.

Having apparently chosen to hide the facts of when, where and how all such products are made*, the Campaign found Waitrose choosing to create alternative narratives to convince people to part with their money and, in some cases, pay a premium compared to similar products in store. 

The Waitrose own-brand / Leckford and ‘exclusive to Waitrose’ Wildfarmed branded products that the Campaign looked at were: Leckford Farmhouse Loaf, Leckford Seeded Baguette, San Francisco Sourdough Style Bloomer, Malted Mixed Seeds Bloomer, Stonebaked Baguette, Mixed Seed Baguette, Brown San Francisco Style Sourdough Boule, Wildfarmed Sliced White Bread, Wildfarmed Sliced Seeded Bread, Wildfarmed 4 White Rolls, Wildfarmed White Sourdough Bread, Wildfarmed Seeded Sourdough Bread. 

*Or, at least, not to make this important information as instantly accessible to all shoppers as the company’s marketing claims…

The marketing

Waitrose ‘bakery’ section marketing involved merchandising unwrapped products in a manner that mimics artisan bakeries - wicker baskets, wooden shelving, paper bags etc. To promote these products, the Campaign found Waitrose variously using the following claims / promises on its website and / or in other marketing: 

• Baked in Store Today
• Only the Essentials
• Pesticide free
• No Nasties
• Naturally Nutritious
• Slow-fermented over two days
• 100% Traceable Supply Chain
• Farmer friendly
• Life Changing
• Farmland friendly - restoring soil and landscapes across the country
• Regen wheat / regenerative farming.
• Restoring the soil, saving water and enhancing nature

The Campaign was unable to find how Waitrose enabled every shopper to verify the facts behind all of these claims quickly and easily, or how the company substantiated the claims.  

Correspondence

In July 2024, the Real Bread Campaign coordinator wrote to Wildfarmed, which at the time was a Campaign supporter. The correspondence lasted until December 2025 but the company did not answer all questions to the Campaign’s satisfaction and declined to make any changes. The Campaign then wrote to Waitrose CEO James Bailey. None of the Waitrose representatives involved in  the correspondence answered all of the questions to the Campaign’s satisfaction or agreed to make any changes.

The law

Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 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.’

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.’ 

Long-standing FSA marketing 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…’ 

See also

• Loaf-tanning salon lies?
• Supermarkets defend use of white flour in wholemeal loaves

Updates

Will appear here.