Start Date
29-5-2020 7:30 PM
End Date
29-5-2020 7:45 PM
Description
In the 1950s, Britain’s local bakers were under siege. Large, highly automated bread factories could supply bread at a lower price, finding a ready market in the growing supermarket presence on the high street. The small bakers turned to the British Baking Industries Research Association (BBIRA), based in Chorleywood, outside London. After very few years of research, the bread scientists unveiled a method that took less time and was able to use lower-protein home-grown wheat: the Chorleywood Bread Process. If the high street bakers thought they were saved, they were sorely mistaken. The big industrial bakers adopted the same process and, helped by their size and the growth of the supermarkets, ate the bakers’ lunch. In this paper, I will look briefly at the history of largescale bread-baking. Since the 1960s, bread making has changed from a largely biological process, albeit with mechanical input, into a more inert process that depends on chemicals and motors. These changes have been widely blamed for bad health and societal ills, possibly without foundation. Finally, the spread of Chorleywood bread also prompted the renaissance of the artisan baker, but she is not the high street baker of old. Those of us who are willing to pay the price might now be getting the bread we deserve, but traps for the unwary remain.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21427/99cm-eb95
Included in
The Worst Thing Since Sliced Bread: the Chorleywood Bread Process
In the 1950s, Britain’s local bakers were under siege. Large, highly automated bread factories could supply bread at a lower price, finding a ready market in the growing supermarket presence on the high street. The small bakers turned to the British Baking Industries Research Association (BBIRA), based in Chorleywood, outside London. After very few years of research, the bread scientists unveiled a method that took less time and was able to use lower-protein home-grown wheat: the Chorleywood Bread Process. If the high street bakers thought they were saved, they were sorely mistaken. The big industrial bakers adopted the same process and, helped by their size and the growth of the supermarkets, ate the bakers’ lunch. In this paper, I will look briefly at the history of largescale bread-baking. Since the 1960s, bread making has changed from a largely biological process, albeit with mechanical input, into a more inert process that depends on chemicals and motors. These changes have been widely blamed for bad health and societal ills, possibly without foundation. Finally, the spread of Chorleywood bread also prompted the renaissance of the artisan baker, but she is not the high street baker of old. Those of us who are willing to pay the price might now be getting the bread we deserve, but traps for the unwary remain.