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Sales of white bread soar as shoppers run low on dough
The trend is part of a resurgence in no-frills cooking, says Waitrose
By Gurpreet Narwan, Consumer Affairs Editor 5 September 2022 • 6:00am
Food snobs look away now: the much-maligned sliced white loaf is making a comeback as the cost of living crisis is now at the centre of shoppers’ minds.
After churning out sourdough loaves of varying quality during lockdowns, the British are falling back in love with soft sliced white bread. According to Waitrose, sales soared by 17 per cent over the past year.
Experts said that the rise was part of a wider resurgence in unpretentious, no-frills cooking at a time when rising costs are putting pressures on household budgets. According to the annual John Lewis ‘How We Shop, Live and Look’ report, sales of toastie makers and deep-fat fryers rose over the year by 63 per cent and 36 per cent respectively.
The report also found that consumers are putting the pandemic behind them, with lockdown-related purchases all falling in popularity. Sales of jigsaw puzzles were down 68 per cent while non-wired comfort bras fell by 33 per cent.
Sales of jeans jumped
Sales of loungewear velour tracksuits dropped by half, while sales of boyfriend jeans jumped by 85 per cent as people ventured out of their homes once more. Wall-mounted desks were removed from sale altogether as "we reclaimed our homes and left the office at the office".
John Lewis said: "This year we've seen a profound shift in shopping behaviour. Customers have enjoyed the return of travel, part-time office working and in-store shopping.”
Bread bin sales also fell by 42 per cent as Britons put their baking skills on pause, returned to the office and started buying sandwiches for lunch instead.
Richard Bainbridge, chef and owner of Benedicts restaurant in Norwich, said: “We’ve all got bleeding gums from the sourdough so now need something softer.”
He said that consumers were increasingly looking for a hit of nostalgia to make them feel “warm and secure” during turbulent economic times. He has added a prawn cocktail starter to his restaurant menu “which always gets a smile from customers”, he said.
It is a sentiment that puzzles our continental cousins. Raymond Blanc, the French Michelin star chef, weighed in earlier this year. He urged Britons to “start doing their own sourdough or focaccia – because white sliced bread is a stain on Britain's food heritage."
He said he was “frightened” by the loaves. “It’s made in factories and the vitamins are added synthetically. And the flavour? No flavour!... It is simply bad food.”
Artisanal bakers in Britain have also spoken out vociferously against this so-called “fake bread”.
Speed up the baking process
Yet British shoppers spent £876 million on the loaves in 2021, according to figures compiled by Mintel, the market research agency. It said that 62 per cent of shoppers buy white, sliced bread.
The loaves appeared in Britain in 1937, when the first slicing and wrapping machine was installed in the Wonderloaf Bakery in Tottenham, north London.
Sliced bread evolved into its current form thanks to the Chorleywood process, which was introduced in the 1960s. It helped to speed up the baking process. Bread made in this way contains additives and processing agents and the fermentation process can be reduced to 3.5 hours.
Chris Young, of the Real Bread Campaign, said: “We encourage everyone who still has a degree of choice in how they spend their money to choose real bread from a local bakery or, if they have an oven and have the time and money to use it, to make their own bread.
"In the current crisis we know that far too many people actually need to find ways to save money. This might include buying loaves that are cheaper at the till than real bread from a local baker.
"Unfortunately, there might be hidden, longer-term costs of this shorter-term saving, whether that’s loss to a local economy and skilled jobs market, or possibly even in terms of dietary ill health.”
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