Funding to test sourdough gut instinct

Photo by Chris R. Sims

The Oxford-based organic bakery and wholefoods supplier will spend the next two years analysing the nutritional value of sourdough and the potential to produce “healthier loaves on a mass-market scale.”  

The bakery will collaborate with researchers at Newcastle University, and food research and advisory organisation Campden BRI. The project will include using a functional replica of the human digestive system for in-vitro tests. The researchers will use this model gut system “to test the value of a given food on gut health.”

Leo Campbell, co-founder of Modern Baker, said: “having access to some of the world’s leading food and medical research facilities in gut health will help us make the breakthroughs the baking sector badly needs.” He went on to say: “we are intent on … debunking the myth that bread and gluten are necessarily bad for your health – and [also showing] that healthy bread and cakes can also taste superb.”

Real Bread Campaign coordinator Chris Young said: “This study is along the lines of research that Campaign co-founder Andrew Whitley and we have been trying to find funding for, and urging commercial baking and milling organisations to commission themselves. It’s great to see that one of our supporters can now test our belief that making Real Bread by sourdough fermentation has health benefits.”

Modern Baker was founded in 2014 by Campbell, Melissa Sharp and School of Artisan Food graduate Lindsay Stark. The bakery’s website states that the team are “proud that our bread is 100% organic, long-fermented, and made only with sourdough instead of [baker’s] yeast and with traditional, stoneground grains.”

The funding has been awarded by Innovate UK, a public innovation agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Read about genuine sourdough

modernbaker.com