Lidl’s sourfaux ‘rye’ bloomer
Made mainly from wheat flour using baker's yeast, rather than the sourdough process.
The Real Bread Campaign recently received an email from a Lidl customer, asking how Lidl can get away with calling a loaf tanning salon product ‘sourdough rye’.
Customer correspondence
‘I wrote to Lidl asking about their “sourdough crusty rye bread”. I had been raving about it to an old friend, so when he came around one day, I cut him a slice. He immediately said this was not proper sourdough rye bread.
Concerned, I wrote to Lidl and asked the question: "Is this proper sourdough rye bread?"
First, they just sent me a copy of the ingredients. I wrote back to ask for the component amounts.
They wrote back, saying they were unable to provide more information regarding the product due to “the recipe protection of our suppliers.”
I wrote back to say that my limited understanding was that the FSA required them to list all constituent ingredients of compound ingredients separately.
They replied: "We are in contact with our supplier, who would like to inform you that our bread contains the following ingredients: 56% wheat flour, water, 12% natural sourdough (rye flour, water), 6% rye flour, yeast, and table salt. It is therefore not pure rye bread.”’
Our message to Lidl
On 31 May 2023, the Campaign emailed Lidl customer services to say that we believe the name of this product is misleading. Most of the flour is wheat, not rye. The use of baker’s yeast means this is not genuine sourdough bread, so Lidl using the word in its name makes it what the Real Bread Campaign calls sourfaux.
We asked the following:
- Will Lidl please rename it something more appropriate, to better reflects its composition and production, such as ‘crusty wheat bloomer with rye’?
- Will you also start displaying full ingredient lists for your unwrapped baked products at the point of sale voluntarily, showing leadership in honesty and transparency by removing an unnecessary barrier to accessing this important information?
We need an Honest Crust Act!
In this case, the shopper had to write not once, or twice but three times before Lidl admitted exactly how little rye flour the product contained.
This yet again underlines our continuing insistence on the necessity of mandatory full ingredient listing at point of sale for products sold unwrapped.
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Updates
4 December 2023: As the result of our complaint, Lidl renamed the product.
22 September 2023: LB Tower Hamlets wrote: "This has now been passed onto Bexley. They have responded that they have asked Lidl to look into this and comment on the allegations made. They should get back to me as soon as Lidl responds so I will keep you posted when I hear back."
21 September 2023: LB Bexley wrote: "I’m afraid I’m unable to deviate from our agreed procedures. As previously mentioned please speak to you local authority who will follow the correct procedures to refer this enquiry to Bexley."
...so we sent our complaint to LB Tower Hamlets, in the full knowledge that they'll have to refer it back tio Bexley.
20 September 2023: LB Bexley replied: "As Lidl’s Primary Authority we act as a conduit between Lidl and our enforcement colleagues throughout the country. Unfortunately we do not accept referrals directly from members of the public (or from non-enforcement organisations). You will have to refer this enquiry through your local Trading Standards or Environmental Health team for them to refer it to us. As you appear to be based in Tower Hamlets please feel free to contact them."
We responded: "Thank you for getting back to me so quickly but I do not understand why you are choosing to create unnecessary extra work for me and your trading standards colleagues at LB Tower Hamlets. Through many of experience, I am fully aware that any case I present to my local authority about a company with a Primary Authority partnership will be referred to that PA. This is why I cut out the middleperson by going to the PA direct, as I have done with cases this year involving more than half a dozen PAs, none of which has referred me back to my LA. Please will you save your TS colleagues, and me, time by dealing with this case that will end up on your desk anyway?"
20 September 2023: Having not received a response from Lidl to our 14 July email, we raised the case with the trading standards department of London Borougfh of Bexley:
'I am contacting you as, according to the BEIS register, LB Bexley has the Primary Authority relationship with Lidl GB for trading standards and environmental health.
In May, we began questioning Lidl about claims it makes for a product it markets as ‘sourdough crusty rye bloomer’. I have attached a photo and our correspondence is copied below my signature.
Our concerns are:
- Rather than being rye bread, this product is made from mostly (56%) wheat flour.
- Customers would have great difficulty knowing this as neither the QUID, let alone a full ingredients list, is displayed at point of sale.*
- When a customer who raised this issue with us finally obtained an ingredients list, they found it included baker’s yeast, which is not used in genuine sourdough bread making.
We, therefore, believe the product name to be totally misleading.
More generally, the company’s website refers to ‘our fresh in store bakery’ and ‘our freshly baked bread favourites’. In-store displays include claims such as ‘baked for you throughout the day’.
Our understanding is that, rather than being made from scratch at each of Lidl’s stores, every one of these products in every one of its UK stores is made elsewhere (even overseas?), frozen or chilled, and then baked (in some cases, merely re-baked) in store. This important information is not given on labels, point of sale displays or even on the company’s website.
We believe that such claims that Lidl makes about its in-store ‘bakeries’ fail to follow The Food Standards Agency’s current guidance for freshness claims, as laid out in the document ‘Criteria for the use of the terms fresh, pure, natural etc. in food labelling’.
I look forward to receiving details of and timescale for your investigation and, if necessary, action you will take.
* I am fully aware that the company’s legal obligations for ingredient declaration/notification for food sold unwrapped do not extend to PoS display.'
14 July 2023: A member of Lidl's quality assurance team replied:
'We have reviewed your last comments and we are unable to offer any additional response to your queries. As previously stated our labels undergo stringent checks prior to the product being placed on the market. These checks are not only carried out by our in-house labelling team, but also by independent institutes. Moreover, our labelling team reviews all labels on a regular basis to ensure not only their legality, but also to confirm that the content is in-line with market trends and consumer demand.
We endeavour to present our customers with clear, factual labels and have passed your comments onto our labelling department, who will retain this information for future reference and research.'
We therefore asked the company to confirm which local authority has the Primary Authority relationship with Lidl for trading standards.
12 July 2023: We sent a follow up email to Ryan McDonnell.
29 June 2023: We sent this email to Ryan McDonnell, CEO of Lidl GB:
'Please see the below correspondence between us and your quality assurance team.
The replies appear to be from a cut-and-paste bank of generic ‘Dear Customer’ responses. These fail to answer the direct questions I asked and assure me of nothing, other than our complaint (which was prompted by a Lidl customer, who received similar treatment) being disregarded.
We believe that, in this case, Lidl’s ‘endeavour to present our customers with clear, factual labels’ falls short of this ambition. The facts are that the main ingredient of this ‘sourdough crusty rye bloomer’ is wheat flour and it is made using baker’s yeast, rather than by the genuine sourdough process.
A point I hadn’t yet raised in this correspondence is Lidl’s ‘fresh’ claims. Your website refers to ‘our fresh in store bakery’ and ‘our freshly baked bread favourites’. In-store displays include claims such as ‘baked for you throughout the day’.
My understanding is that, rather than being made from scratch at each of your stores, every one of these products in every one of your UK stores is made elsewhere (even overseas?), frozen or chilled, and then baked (in some cases, merely re-baked) in store. This important information is not given on labels, point of sale displays or even on your website.
As you, or at least your compliance team, will be aware, The Food Standards Agency’s guidance (as laid out in the document ‘Criteria for the use of the terms fresh, pure, natural etc. in food labelling’) 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...’
Our questions now are:
- When will Lidl change the name and/or labelling of the ‘sourdough crusty rye bloomer’ so that you no longer lead people to understand that it is genuine sourdough rye bread?
- More generally, to help make shoppers make better-informed choices, when will Lidl show leadership in the sector by going beyond minimum legal requirements and voluntarily displaying at point of sale and on your website full ingredients lists for everything in its baked products section?
- When will you display at point of sale and on your website information that makes clear which baked products have been made elsewhere and simply baked, or re-baked, in-store, stating place of production?'
28 June 2023: Lidl's response to our 27 June email:
'Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback, regarding our bread products. We wish to assure you that we adhere to all British and European Regulations, including those regarding labelling.
Our labels undergo stringent checks prior to the product being placed on the market. These checks are not only carried out by our in-house labelling team, but also by independent institutes. Moreover, our labelling team reviews all labels on a regular basis to ensure not only their legality, but also to confirm that the content is in-line with market trends and consumer demand.
We endeavour to present our customers with clear, factual labels and have passed your comments onto our labelling department, who will retain this information for future reference and research.
We would like to emphasise that we appreciate all feedback from our customers as it enables us to monitor and maintain the high standards that we insist upon. We have passed your comments onto the relevant teams which will be used internally for future use. Thank you for your feedback and we hope that you will remain a valued Lidl customer.'
27 June 2023: We sent Lidl a follow up email to their 1 June response: 'Can you please give me an update on this case? Lidl wouldn’t (we trust) sell a product as ‘sour mash rye whiskey’ if 80% or more of the bottle’s content was vodka – that is, made from a different grain by a fundamentally different process.
Why then continue to market this product as ‘sourdough rye’ when the truth it is made using baker’s yeast and mostly wheat flour?
When will Lidl change the name and/or labelling of this product so that you no longer lead (or should that be mislead?) people to understand that it is genuine sourdough rye bread?
More generally, to help make shoppers make better-informed choices, when will Lidl show leadership in the sector by going beyond minimum legal requirements and voluntarily displaying full ingredients lists for everything in its baked products section?'
26 June 2023: Lidl customer services sent this reply to the person who highligted this issue to the Campaign: '
Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback, regarding the Crusty Sourdough Rye.
We wish to assure you that we adhere to all British and European Regulations, including those regarding labelling.
Our supplier and Labelling Department, confirmed that the Sourdough Breads
Rye generally are made from composite flours for the simple reason that it leads to a better, more rounded product – you get the texture and structure of a wheat loaf with the flavour of rye as these types of products never really are made with majority rye flour.
We would like to confirm that the product is in line with the current labelling regulations and the information regarding its ingredients are correct, as rye is one of the ingredients of the product.
Our labels undergo stringent checks prior to the product being placed on the market. These checks are not only carried out by our in-house labelling team, but also by independent institutes. Moreover, our labelling team reviews all labels on a regular basis to ensure not only their legality, but also to confirm that the content is in-line with market trends and consumer demand.
We endeavour to present our customers with clear, factual labels and have passed your comments onto our labelling department, who will retain this information for future reference and research.
We can confirm that your comments have been passed on to the relevant department for their consideration.
In order to thank you for your patience whilst this matter was looked into and for bringing this to our attention, we would like to offer you a gesture of goodwill in the form of the attached digital voucher which can be used in our stores. The digital voucher can be redeemed at any manned checkout in store and can be used over multiple transactions until the full value has been redeemed. Further terms and conditions apply, please see the attached voucher for more information.
We would like to emphasise that we appreciate all feedback from our customers as it enables us to monitor and maintain the high standards that we insist upon. Thank you for your feedback and we hope that you will remain a valued Lidl customer.'
1 June 2023: Lidl customer services replied: 'We can confirm that we have passed your comments on to the relevant departments for their consideration.'
See also
Published Wednesday 31 May 2023
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