List of UK supermarket breads with no additives
Around 87% of UK supermarket breads are ultra-processed or contain additives in some form. On this page, we have collected a comprehensive list of the remaining 13% of breads that are free of any additives.
Most breads are ultra-processed
Among the 600 UK supermarket breads in The Food App's database, over 70% of them can be considered ultra-processed by the NOVA classification.
The NOVA classification does allow for some additives like ascorbic acid, without putting them in the ultra-processed category. But we widened it further for this list, to breads containing any kind of additive or treatment agent. This makes it out to around 87% of all supermarket breads.
Less then 13% Real Bread
The remaining 13% of supermarket breads are what the Real Bread Campaign calls Read Bread: «Real Bread is made without chemical raising agents, so-called processing aids or any other additives».
However, this 13% figure should be considered an upper estimate. We only looked at the ingredients declared on the product label for this list. The Real Bread Campaign’s definition also excludes so-called processing aids, which may not always be listed as ingredients. Therefore, some breads that appear additive-free on the label may still not meet the Real Bread definition.
We did exclude breads with «fermented wheat flour», as the Real Bread Campaign points out may contain propionic acid (E280 as a preservation additive).
Still, while approximately 13% of supermarket breads in our database have no listed additives, the actual share of UK supermarket breads that fully qualify as Real Bread may be lower.
List of breads with no listed additives
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