Where we Stand

As I live and work in London, I know more about the bread of Britain than of other countries. Until relatively recently, the future of bread in Britain looked bleak. Following the Second World War, the number of independent bakeries headed into what seemed a permanent decline, with a handful of industrial giants and multiple retailers rising to dominance and helping to speed their demise.

A particularly dark day for Real Bread historians came in July 1961, when the British Baking Industries Research Association unleashed what later became known as the Chorleywood Bread Process (CBP), which takes a shortcut through dough’s natural fermentation and “ripening” time, slashing it from hours or even days to minutes.