UK supermarkets taken to task over claims about freshly baked bread
Complaints have been filed against five major British supermarket groups, accused of offering freshly baked bread in their stores.
The Real Bread Campaign has called claims from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Lidl and The Co-op misleading and has made complaints to the relevant trading standards authorities.
The Real Bread campaign, run by the Sustain group, which campaigns for a better system of food, farming and fishing, is unhappy that supermarkets appear to suggest that the bread in their in-store bakeries is baked from zero from ingredients when instead they are recycled. make bread made elsewhere.
In a statement sent to Just foodthe Real Bread campaign said: “People have the right to know whether a loaf of bread was made from scratch on site by a qualified baker, or whether it was made elsewhere and simply loaded into a tanning salon.”
“The truth won’t affect people who buy based on price and availability alone, but it will give everyone else the opportunity to make more informed choices about what they buy. Re-baking approximately doubles the energy used, results in products that spoil quickly and are therefore more likely to result in food and financial waste and do not support high-quality baking jobs in the store’s local community.
In the case of Sainsbury’s, the campaign group said products in its bakery section use claims such as “freshly made every day” and “freshly baked bread”.
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Real Bread Campaign said that “the claims are increasingly less representative of the company’s in-store bakeries in general”, given that Sainsbury’s announced that more of its in-store bakeries would move to a “baking model”. bakery pastry “.
On Monday (June 10), the campaign group lodged a complaint against Sainsbury’s with Oxfordshire County Council Trading Standards.
In the case of Tesco, the campaign group said it marketed baked goods using claims such as “expertly baked in store since 1968”, “fresh from our ovens every day” and “freshly cooked throughout the day” on packaging, store displays and its website.
Real Bread Campaign said it found Tesco using this type of marketing in stores where no bread was freshly baked on site.
Chris Young, coordinator of the campaign group, said: “For several years, Tesco closed its in-store bakeries and cut skilled baker roles, replacing fresh bread making with staff loading pre-made products. Bread tanning salons. We are saddened by the audacity of the company in telling shoppers that things are expertly prepared and freshly prepared and we are amazed that they have been allowed to continue to make such claims.
On May 28, Real Bread Campaign sent its complaint to Hertfordshire County Council, the local authority with the main authority relationship with Tesco over trading standards.
Similar grievances have been raised by the campaign group over the Co-op, Morrisons and Lidl allegations and complaints have been made to their relevant trading standards authorities.
Just food asked all relevant supermarket groups for their response to the campaign group’s complaints.
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 that everyone can afford.
“More of our stores are now making 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 said: “We are proud of our colleagues who bake high-quality, affordable bread freshly 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 spokesperson for the Co-op said: “As a convenience store, we are proud to offer a range of affordable, high-quality in-store bakeries to our member owners and customers – including our much-loved Irrésistible Sourdough Baguette which is freshly prepared and cooked by trained colleagues every day in our stores.
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