The Real Bread campaign has filed complaints against Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Lidl and Co-op over the past 12 months, alleging they were misusing claims such as “freshly baked” on the packaging of their products. bakery, as well as on posters, windows and point-of-sale displays.
The campaign claims that retailers made “freshly cooked” and other similar claims about products that were not actually cooked on site, but rather had been recooked refrigerated or frozen.
As a result, various trading standards bodies were contacted as part of the campaign, claiming the practice was misleading and contrary to consumer protection regulations.
“UK supermarkets may not be as honest and transparent as they could be about what goes on behind the scenes in some in-store bakery sections,”» says the campaign.
“In some cases, rather than employing skilled bakers to make products on-site from scratch (i.e. from basic ingredients), ‘baking’ is actually what Real Bread campaign calls for a tanning salon. It’s a place where staff members simply load pre-made products into an oven.
To clarify its position, the Real Bread Campaign said the complaints filed were strictly about how baked goods are marketed and were not calling on supermarkets to stop selling any type of product.
Retailers react
In response to a request for comment from Food Manufacture, a Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “We reviewed our bakery services and recipes earlier this year to ensure we can offer great food at a price everyone can afford. More and more of our stores are now baking store-prepared dough, as this allows us to offer customers the best quality in-store baked goods at great value. Our baked goods are also clearly labeled in accordance with legislation and trading standards.
A Tesco spokesperson added: “We are proud of our colleagues who bake fresh, high-quality, affordable bread in hundreds of our stores – and have done so since we opened our first in-store bakery in 1968.
“In some stores where we don’t have the space to prepare everything from scratch, we work closely with our bakery suppliers who prepare the dough for us which trained colleagues prepare in store every day. The signage we use in each store reflects the different ways we prepare bread, and our approach has been agreed with our Lead Trading Standards Authority.
A Co-op spokesperson also provided comment: “As a convenience retailer, we are proud to offer a range of affordable, high-quality in-store baked goods to our member owners and customers – including our much-loved Irrésistible Sourdough Baguette which is freshly made and cooked every day by trained colleagues in our stores. .”
Food Manufacture contacted Morrisons and Lidl.
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