Real Bread Week for YOU not UPF

Wholemeal real bread: loadsa fibre, no additives.. Credit: Chris Young / www.realbreadcampaign.org CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0

Published: Saturday 21 February 2026

With questions and concerns continuing to swirl around ultra-processed foods (UPF), the Real Bread Campaign welcomes the world to join the annual, international celebration of additive-free bread and people behind its rise.

Running from 21 February to 1 March 2026, Real Bread Week invites everyone to:

BAKE Real Bread of any kind, by hand or machine
BUY Real Bread, ideally from a local indie bakery
BOOST the Real Bread Campaign by supporting the charity’s work

As 96% of adults in the UK eat less than the recommended amount of fibre, the Campaign particularly encourages people to make, sell, buy and enjoy wholemeal Real Bread.

You can follow @RealBreadCampaign on Instagram and Facebook.

BAKE

Now in its 17^th year, Real Bread Week sees Real Bread bakers, bakery teachers, farmers, millers, influencers, schools, care homes, eateries and other businesses / organisations across the UK and around the globe helping everyone to join the fun.

#RealBreadWeek event / activity organisers are invited to add details to the latest events calendar on the Campaign’s website, though many simply post them on social media. The Campaign’s website also features FREE recipes.

BUY

Small, independent bakeries at the hearts of our communities help support more (skilled and meaningful) jobs per loaf, keep more money circulating in local economies, and keep high streets alive. Taking a stand against marketing misdirection, and helping everyone seek out additive-free bread, the Campaign runs the Real Bread Map and The Real Bread Loaf Mark scheme.

BOOST

The Campaign doesn’t accept corporate sponsorship and hasn’t received grant funding in over a decade. To help ensure the food and farming charity Sustain can continue the Campaign’s work through 2026 and beyond, people can:

Balcony Shirts will be selling limited-edition design fundraising t-shirts, aprons and mugs until the end of March through www.realbreadshop.co.uk

Real Bread for All

The Campaign asks bakery owners and public sector caterers: how will you make Real Bread available to people on the tightest budgets in your local community during Real Bread Week and beyond? The free Real Bread for All guide includes suggestions and examples of how they can.

Real Bread in Schools

This year, the Campaign is urging the government to ensure the School Food Standards Review puts Real Bread in its rightful place on the menu of every school; and also to put Real Bread making on the timetable as a valuable life skill.

Starting with just a handful of wheat and square metre of soil, Bake Your Lawn, the Campaign’s grow-a-loaf guidebook, helps teachers (and others) to lead children along hands-on journeys of discovery, from seed to sandwich.

Grain Changers

Baking A Better Tomorrow: The Story of the Grain Changers reshaping the bread we eat, is a new, one-off magazine from Better Food Traders, Real Bread Campaign and UK Grain Lab.

Published on 21 February, it tells the story of pioneering seed producers, farmers, millers, Real Bread bakers, and food traders around the UK, who are challenging the dominant industrial farming, food and retail systems.

The work of these Grain Changers respects seeds, the soil, flavours of the grain, nutritional (and other) qualities of flour, and the people working to bring better bread to our plates. The magazine is available to download for free from the Campaign website, with a limited number of paper copies finding their way to bakeries, mills etc.

Great Scots!

Celebrating its fourth year as a highlight of Real Bread Week, The Scottish Festival of Real Bread returns to Bowhouse, in Fife, on Saturday 28 February, from 10am to 4pm. More than a national gathering for bakers, millers, farmers and other food producers, the free event welcomes everyone to a family-friendly day centred on Real Bread, Scottish-grown grains and sustainable food culture. Attendees will also be first to discover the winners in the 10^th annual Scottish Bread Championship.

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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