Lidl deletes freshly baked bread claim

Lidl is the latest supermarket chain that has changed its marketing following the Real Bread Campaign’s The (not so) Great British Fake Off work.

Lidl makes nothing fresh from scratch in any of its UK stores. Instead, bread-type products are manufactured elsewhere, chilled or frozen, transported long distances and merely re-baked in store using what the Campaign calls loaf tanning salons. Despite this, the company advertised: ‘our freshly baked bread favourites’, ‘baked for you throughout the day’ and ‘our fresh in store bakery’.

On 1 November 2024, the trading standards department of London Borough of Bexley, which has the Primary Authority relationship with the company, advised that: ‘there are now no references to “freshly baked” in any of Lidl’s instore advertising materials or on their website.’

Real Bread Campaign co-ordinator Chris Young said: ‘This is another victory for shoppers, albeit a small one. People have the right to know when, where, how and with what bread and industrial dough products are made. They shouldn’t be left, or misled, to believe that a product prefabricated a long tome ago in in a factor far, far away, was freshly made in store.’

A long journey with a way to go

The Real Bread Campaign first contacted Lidl’s CEO with concerns about the company’s ‘bakery’ section labelling and marketing in May 2023, and added concerns about the freshness claims in June 2023. Unsatisfied with the ultimate response, the Campaign submitted a complaint to LB Bexley in September 2023. On 29 November 2023, LB Bexley advised that Lidl had changed the name of its ‘sourdough rye crusty bloomer’ to ‘crusty wheat & rye bloomer’. The Campaign continued to pursue other elements of its complaint.

Lidl is still marketing re-baked products as ‘baked for you throughout the day’ and the Campaign has asked LB Bexley to advise the timescale it has given the company to remove this claim.

Half baked marketing

None of the UK’s 10 largest supermarket chains makes bread fresh from scratch in all of its stores. Some make nothing from scratch in any of their stores. The retailers choose not to display this information, instead choosing to make marketing claims, which don't always accurately represent where, when and how products were made.

Progress in this Real Bread Campaign action include:

• November 2024: Sainsbury’s forced to drop fresh bread claim
• October 2024: Asda admitted its 'freshly baked daily' claim was past its use-by date
• September 2024: Co-op admitted it was using the claim ‘freshly baked today’ to market ready-made, ‘thaw and serve’ products
• July 2024: Morrisons admitted it was using the claim ‘made from scratch in our in store bakery’ to market products that were not made from scratch in store

Chris Young said: ‘We shouldn’t need to spend months and months and months working to get things put right. The government needs to better protect shoppers, and reduce the burden on underfunded trading standards departments, by introducing clear, undisputable legislation that prevents companies making these sorts of claims in the first place.’

The Campaign continues to lobby for an Honest Crust Act of updated and improved composition, labelling and marketing standards and guidance.

***ENDS***

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The truth is important, as re-baking:

• uses around twice as much energy as a product that is baked once.
• results in products that tend to stale more quickly and so are more likely to be discarded, to the detriment of the shopper and the environment.
• doesn’t support skilled bakery jobs in the store’s local community.

Current, long-standing Food Standards Agency guidance 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…’

These provisions include Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, and The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

However, none of this legislation specifically references ‘freshly made/baked’ type claims, which has resulted in some people disputing how the governmental guidance should be interpreted.

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