Expertise claim switched from baking to selecting. Credit: www.realbreadcampaign.org CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0
Tesco drops ‘expertly baked’ claim
Real Bread Campaign trading standards complaint success.
As the result of a trading standards complaint submitted by the Real Bread Campaign in May 2024, the UK’s largest supermarket chain has dropped the long-standing ‘expertly baked in store since 1968’ promise it made to shoppers.
On Friday 10 July 2026, a member of the Public Protection & Integrated Enforcement Division of London Borough of Tower Hamlets advised that Tesco had told Hertfordshire County Council* the company had replaced its baking expertise marketing claim with the store-wide pledge: ‘expertly selected for quality & taste since 1919.’
Real Bread Campaign coordinator Chris Young, who had pursued the case for over two years, said: ‘We welcome this long-overdue result. We continue to call on all bakeries and retailers to be fully honest and transparent about where, when, how and with what their products are made, so that shoppers have the chance to make better-informed buying choices.’
He added: ‘What’s really needed is a change in law. Shoppers need to be able to trust that a retailer’s promises are true and that they are not being misled by omission of key facts. We continue to fight for an Honest Crust Act of updated and improved legally-binding standards, and urge the government to properly fund and empower consumer protection services.’
Tesco had made the ‘expertly baked in store since 1968’ heritage claim at sites where prefabricated products were brought in from distant factories (some overseas) and simply defrosted, or merely re-baked in what the Campaign calls loaf-tanning salons to brown and crisp the crust.
Trading standards officers did not say if Tesco had stopped making other claims cited by the Campaign in its May 2024 complaint. A number of other trading standards complaints submitted by the Campaign about supermarket labelling and marketing remain unresolved.
The Campaign’s website includes a library of free recipes and the Real Bread Map of places to buy additive-free bread. Everyone is invited to join the Campaign in support of its charitable work.
*London Borough of Tower Hamlets is Sustain’s / the Real Bread Campaign’s local authority; Hertfordshire Country Council is Tesco’s Primary Authority for trading standards.
See also
Real Bread Campaign: Finding and sharing ways to make bread better for us, our communities and planet.
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