Pret heeds Real Bread Campaign labelling call

Four years after the Real Bread Campaign began urging Pret a Manger to introduce full ingredient labelling, the company has started doing so in UK stores.

Pret shelf label before full ingredient listing by Chris Young / realbreadcampaign.org CC-BY-SA 4.0Pret shelf label before full ingredient listing by Chris Young / realbreadcampaign.org CC-BY-SA 4.0

News Real Bread Campaign

Published: Tuesday 7 May 2019

On 3 May 2019, Pret announced it had started to introduce full ingredient labelling in 20 UK stores, which will then be rolled out nationwide.

Real Bread Campaign coordinator Chris Young said: “We welcome this news and encourage all loaf retailers and sandwich sellers to follow suit. It’s tragic that Pret didn’t listen to us sooner and a shame the company still resists ditching all additives in order to offer its customers Real Bread.”

In May 2015, the Real Bread Campaign became aware that Pret was using ‘natural’ food claims to market sandwiches and other products made using artificial additives, despite also claiming to ‘shun’ and ‘avoid’ them. Chris Young then wrote to Pret CEO Clive Schlee, urging the company to:

  • Start listing all ingredients, including additives, on packaging or at point of sale
  • Bring its marketing messages in line with its practices by dropping ‘natural’ and additive-avoidance claims
  • Switch to serving only Real Bread

At the time Pret declined to make any of the three changes.

While Pret subsequently dropping ‘natural’ claims was a direct result of the Real Bread Campaign’s work, the company introducing full ingredient labelling was mainly driven by the deaths of two customers who were unaware of the presence of allergens.

See also


Real Bread Campaign: Finding and sharing ways to make bread better for us, our communities and planet.

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