Thank you for getting in touch.

Just to clarify what you may have read in the press, the Real Bread Campaign has never claimed that bread manufacturers are failing to declare any additives or ingredients.

What we have said is that among a long list processing aids (see the attached extract from The Food Labelling Regulations 1996 for a definition) that can be used in bread production, there is one enzyme - phospholipase - that, according to the Leatherhead Food Research Association Ingredients Handbook: Enzymes (1999), can be derived from porcine (pig) pancreas. The Food Standards Australia New Zealand application A1004 (2009) further outlines that this enzyme can also be obtained from a genetically modified fungal source.

Phospholipase (porcine or otherwise) might not be used in much British bread, or indeed any bread at all. The problem is that we just don’t know. The Federation of Bakers and their members (which account for around 80% of UK bread production) are exercising their legal right (as enshrined by The Food Labelling Regulations 1996) not to list such processing aids (let alone their origin) on bread labels.

On 2 April 2009, we wrote to the heads of the Federation of Bakers and its seven member companies, asking them to confirm that they do not use such processing aids, to phase out any that they do and voluntarily to list them in full on their labels in the meantime. You can read this open letter at our website.

As none of them has replied to us, we will be joining the Real Food Festival from 8-10 May to launch the Stick One On ‘em! labelling transparency petition, which we will also put up at our website.

At a later date, we plan to question the supermarkets about their in-store bakery bread, which accounts for about 15-17% of the UK bread market

In the meantime, two solutions that might or not work for you are to visit a local bakery, who’ll be able to tell you exactly what they do and don’t use in the production of their bread or to bake a loaf yourself, which will give you full control.