Knead to Know: Promise, Performance and the Profit Motive in Plant Baked Bread

Today three plant bakers, two of which are multinational concerns, supply the major multiples with approximately 80% of the 9 million loaves of bread we eat each day.

These plant bakeries also supply supermarket own label bread as well as branded bread, all using the same automated Chorleywood process, which many believe to be responsible for the widespread gluten intolerance prevalent in today’s society.

Of the remaining 20% of bread consumed, in-store bakeries (ISBs) within supermarkets produce about 17% and high street retail (craft) bakers produce the rest (3%). The Federation of Bakers defines craft as made by bakers who “bake bread and bakery products on their own premises” and they say this sector has been “…declining for many years, squeezed by competition both from plant bakers and multiple retailers”.

Of the top three manufacturers of bread, Allied Bakeries has 13 UK manufacturing sites, British Bakeries 13 UK sites and Warburtons 11 UK sites. Allied Bakeries is a subsidiary of publicly listed Associated British Foods, British Bakeries is part of publicly listed food conglomerate Premier Foods and Warburtons is independently owned.

Over 4 million loaves a day, approximately two thirds of the plant baked bread we consume,  is made by publicly traded corporations whose number one legally mandated fiduciary duty to their shareholders is to maximise the profit of the company. Period. That is their sole priority.

There is no legally mandated duty upon them to produce good bread. Thus it’s reasonable to conclude that ethical standards are less important than legal standards in the pursuit of their fiduciary duty to make a profit.

The Competition Commission (CC) says

If any feature, or combination of features, of a relevant market prevents, restricts or distorts competition in connection with the supply or acquisition of any goods or services in the UK or a part of the UK, under the Act this constitutes an ‘adverse effect on competition’.

The phrase ‘prevents, restricts or distorts’ is interpreted by The CC to “include one circumstance in which several features create a situation in which the suppliers do not compete to the extent they would in a fully competitive market”.

Where The CC decides there is an adverse effect on competition “A detrimental effect on customers is defined as one taking the form of:

(a) higher prices, lower quality or less choice of goods or services in any market in the UK (whether or not the market to which the feature or features concerned relate)…”.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE BREAD WE BUY AND CONSUME IS MADE BY 3 COMPANIES AND SOLD BY 3 RETAILERS.

This situation does, I would argue, constitute an adverse effect on competition. And it seems the The Federation of Bakers, which represents the industry’s major players, does not disagree, afterall they describe craft bakers as

…squeezed by competition”

The fact is the majority of consumers do not have a reasonable level of choice.

And given that there is little competition and little choice, what then are the chances that the plant baked, Chorleywood `no-time -dough’ loaf, made, in the majority of cases by a publicly listed company whose sole purpose is to make profit for shareholders, is of, as the Competition Commission decrees, “lower quality” than a craft baked loaf?

JR Irons, a baker with over 7,500 competition awards and a former Federation of Master Bakers Chair, had something to say about quality when he debated the issue at the Federation of Master Bakers conference, circa 1933

Bread with good appearance is in the same category as promise and performance. By its appearance you promise, but its eating qualities, its palate appeal, should be a fulfilment of that promise. Eye appeal stirs the imagination to anticipate the pleasure of enjoyment, so finality in bread is palate appeal”.

Bakers of old also had a simple test: It should not be possible when you have got through the crust of bread for the interior of the loaf to be squeezed and still resemble a ball of dough.

Try it on any plant baked loaf and I guarantee you a remarkably consistent result: a claggy ball of dough.

The plant bakery industry and the retailers may have tried their hardest to educate the British palate out of any awareness of a tasty loaf in dedicated pursuit of their own profits over the last 75 years, but given that “lower quality” remains its achilles heel, it’s perhaps not that surprising that the organisation representing 80% of the industry feels the need to fire a shot across the bows of the 3%  bit players, the craft bakers.

The Real Bread Campaign, which has been doing some stirling work with a range of new initiatives for schools and would-be bakers recently, spotted this in the Federation of Bakers 2010 Annual Report:

“The Real Bread Campaign was awarded £240,000 of funding last year over a 4-year period from the Big Lottery Fund. The Federation are concerned this will give the group more funds to use to denigrate plant bakery bread. To combat this we must ensure we shout about our proud achievements in local communities. Plant bakeries are an important part of community life offering employment and producing a nutritious food that is made in a cost-effective way making it accessible to all consumers…”

In a way it’s flattering that of the nine companies making up the Federation of Bakers, the three biggest players (responsible for approximately 80% of the bread we eat) are bothered enough to protest about a tiny minority, who they already describe as “in decline” and “squeezed” by themselves and by the multiples.

However it may also be a worrying indication of just how aggressively these big companies and this industry will defend their mammoth market share and seek to obliterate any competition, however small and insignificant it may appear to be.

In the longer term the glimmer of hope comes firstly in the unlikely form of fuel constraints, which, as energy costs rise, may, to a degree, level the playing field between David and Goliath and secondly in the unlikely form of socially conscious entrants to the craft baking industry.

Bakeries like the Handmade bakery co-operative in Yorkshire, featured in last weeks Telegraph are providing an inspirational, clear example of a potential working model for the future and, with the support of organisations like The Real Bread Campaign’s Knead to Know, a self help guide to new entrants to the industry, there is hope that, in the long run, David may yet triumph against all the odds.