The Real Bread Campaign is calling for an Honest Crust Act to help people make better informed choices about the food they buy
Did you know 'freshly baked' loaves could have been made months ago or that certain additives don't appear on industrial loaf labels? Or that there is no UK legal definition for sourdough or artisan bread, meaning there is little to prevent those terms being used to market any loaf made anyhow by anyone?
To protect the rights of shoppers to be able to make fully-informed choices, we call for an Honest Crust Act that will include:
In the meantime, we call upon all bakers and retailers to adopt these voluntarily. Campoaign supporters can login for our loaf labelling guide.
Find more updates in our news pages.
March 2020 COVID-19 has forced us to pause our plans to hold the government to the promise it made in November 2018 to review loaf labelling and marketing legislation after BREXIT.
December 2019 Queen’s Speech reinforces foundation for Honest Crust Act
December 2019 Save our Sourdough
December 2019 Watchdog sleeps through sourfaux ads
November 2019 Sourdough code of (mal)practice?
June 2019 Natasha's Law: Real Bread Campaign reaction
May 2019 FSA backs Real Bread Campaign labelling call
May 2019 Big brand sourfaux exposed
November 2018 Government commits to Honest Crust Act review (but only after BREXIT)
November 2018 Loaf labelling and marketing: Real Bread Campaign replies to Defra
October 2018 Gove served Honest Crust Act letter
October 2018 Real Bread Campaign rejects Gove's ‘accurate and informative’ loaf labelling assurance
October 2018 Marketing year-old baguettes as fresh 'wrong' says Real Bread Campaign
August 2018 100% Wholemeal? Update
July 2018 Cross party support for better loaf labelling
June 2018 Call on your MP to urge for better loaf labelling laws
April 2018 By the time the action launched in September ended, more than 1500 people had written to Michael Gove at Defra in support of the Campaign's call for an Honest Crust Act. To date, none has received a reply and the Campaign will be taking the next step in spring 2018.
September 2017 Prue Leith supports Real Bread Campaign’s Better Bread Britain call to Gove
July 2017 No Honest Crust Act decision until after Brexit says Defra
April 2017 The Campaign wrote a letter to Defra, restating its call for an Honest Crust Act. Purdah means a reply won't be received until after the general election.
April 2016 The Campaign launched a consultation amongst its supporters and wider network of friends to help decide what action to take next on these issues. As part of this, the Campaign wrote this briefing document on the main three options.
January 2016 The Campaign met with Defra on 13 October 2015 and 20 January 2016 to discuss these issues.
June 2014 A small victory. Four 'token nutrients' are added to most UK milled wheat flour but not declared on product labels. While the Campaign questioned whether they were necessary at all, it campaigned for their declaration to be made mandatory. This came into force thanks to the new Food Information for Consumers regulations.
A survey by the Real Bread Campaign of 1300 people around the UK in October 2011 found that:
On this issue let’s take inspiration from France, which on 13 September 1993 issued Décret n°93-1074 - which could easily be called The Real Bread Act.
This decree (law) states that bread may be marketed/sold as pain de tradition française, pain traditionnel français, pain traditionnel de France, or under similar names only if it is made:
Permitted optional extras (maximum in relation to flour weight) are 2% bean meal; 0.5% soybean meal; 0.3% malted wheat flour.
The decree also:
November 2013
Most of the provisions of the EU Food Information for Consumers Regulation (Regulation EU 1169/2011) will come into force on 13 December 2013.
Requirements relevant to small, independent Real Bread bakers will include:
You can read the draft version of the Food Information Regulations proposed for England (Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland's versions are likely to be very similar) here.
NB Due to lack of funding, the Real Bread Campaign is unable to give advice on the new regulation.
Sadly, it now seems that the Regulation might include what we see as a loophole.
Part A of Annex VI (MANDATORY PARTICULARS ACCOMPANYING THE NAME OF THE FOOD: NAME OF THE FOOD AND SPECIFIC ACCOMPANYING PARTICULARS) of the EU Regualtion states:
Great news for people, like us, who believe that selling bake-off loaves as 'fresh' is misleading, right?
Perhaps not.
The rules go on to says that the requirement doesn't apply to 'foods for which the defrosting has no negative impact on the safety or quality of the food.'
As bake off loaves tend to stale quickly, which arguably is a negative impact on quality, we would be interested to hear from anyone who tests the new regulation by submitting a complaint to their local trading standards office after it comes into force in December 2014.
October 2011
The process for the passing of a new EU regulation on food labelling is in its final stages. Once passed, EU member states (including the UK) will have to amend existing laws or pass new ones to bring them into line with the new regulation.
You can read the text of the proposed regulation as agreed by the European Parliament here, and more about the proposals here.
In September, Chris Young of the Campaign sent DEFRA the following email:
Having had chance to read through [the proposed regulation], I have a few questions to which I've been unable to find answers.
What is the EU's definition of 'technological function'? e.g with regard to bread, are any of the following considered to be 'technological functions in the end product'?
My belief is that the first definitely is, but I'm not sure about the others.
Am I correct in my reading that the new regulations would make the labelling of the following mandatory:
Closely related to the frozen bake-off question, is regarding a loaf has been part-baked, chilled (but not frozen) and then rebaked. After all, this process does have a negative impact on the shelf life of the loaf, uses twice as much energy as a once-baked loaf, and replaces the potential for a local skilled employment opportunity, with setting an oven timer. We would consider marketing this as 'freshly baked' or simply 'fresh', or failure to indicate that it has been baked twice to be misleading - would DEFRA agree?
On 6 October 2011, we received the following response from DEFRA's Food Policy Unit:
You highlight some useful points and I expect some of these will need further discussion to identify consensus as the new requirements are applied to labels. I have tried to address your questions below.
What is the EU's definition of 'technological function'?
There is no specific definition as far as we are aware of technological function for use in the context of the defrosted provisions. We anticipate the this aspect of the dossier will need some further work to establish consensus on the process that are understood to be captured, bearing in mind the need to balance the burden to businesses and consumers needs. The discussions in the negotiations focused on a limited range of circumstances e.g. meat that is frozen to be sliced and further thought will be needed to identify how this applies to specific food types. This may need input from a range of organisations to achieve a common understanding.
The presence in flour and baked goods of added powdered gluten will need to be labelled
It is likely that powered gluten would need to be labelled unless any specific exemptions apply. Any substance derived from one of the allergens e.g. cereals containing gluten would require labelling.
The presence in flour of added nutrients, including the four (calcium carbonate, iron, thiamin, nicotinic acid/nicotinamide) required by Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 will need to be labelled
It is correct that the nutrients required under the bread and flour regulations will need to be labelled once the transition period for the FIR ends in 3 years time. This reflects that there is less ability for Member States to have national rules as the European requirements are now a regulation. Given the impact on business we have investigated if there is an alternative solution and unfortunately a solution could not be found.
If dough or a part-bake loaf has been frozen before baking for sale - a process that reduces the shelf life would need to be labelled.
How the resulting product is sold is important in answering this question. Some products produced this way will be sold non prepacked or prepacked for direct sale in which case the defrosted provisions would not apply. If prepacked, whether not providing the information is considered misleading is dependent on the overall presentation of the product. It is likely that information may be required where consumers as a result of the labelling and manner in which the bread was sold would otherwise think the bread was freshly made on site. This is something to be considered as part of enforcement practice on the FIR.
The origin of the grain from which flour is milled if different from the country of milling - e.g if flour labelled as British was milled in England but from Canadian wheat would need to be labelled
The Commission are charged with developing implementing rules on the Country of Origin provision. As such we would not want to prejudge the result of those discussions as this may influence how information is presented on the label.
The country in which flour is milled, if different from the country in which a product is baked - e.g. if a loaf labelled as French was made from flour milled in France but baked in England, or vice versa would need to be labelled
Again, the Commission are charged with developing implementing rules on the Country of Origin provision. As such we would not want to prejudge the result of those discussions as this may influence how information is presented on the label.
We would consider marketing this as 'freshly baked' or simply 'fresh', or failure to indicate that it has been baked twice to be misleading - would DEFRA agree?
The term fresh in the context of bread is not defined. The Government has produced based practice advice on the criteria for using marketing terms such as fresh. In this it is suggested:
Fresh bread:
46. 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 referred to in paragraph 14 above.
Point 14 refers to whether the information is misleading. Ultimately it is for enforcement authorities and the courts to decide if labels are misleading. We will be revisiting this guidance in light of the new provisions in the FIR on misleading labelling.
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