Growing consumer interest in specialty bread offers numerous opportunities for suppliers of bake-off solutions, reports Jonathan Thomas.
Part-baked and ready-to-bake foods, which are often referred to as bake-off solutions, have become an essential sector of the bakery goods industry in Europe, especially for companies such as retailers seeking to offer freshly prepared bread, cakes, and pastries to their consumers. The global market for part-baked bread continues to expand – according to Future Market Insights (FMI), worldwide sales amounted to USD5.6bn in 2022. This figure is forecast to increase by an annual average of almost 5% during the current decade, reaching approximately USD8.8bn by 2032. Sales are heaviest in countries where the industrial baking sector tends to be more prevalent. In contrast, sales of part-baked bread are generally lower in places where bread sold is chiefly sold via smaller artisanal and craft bakers.
Demand for part-baked bread has benefited from the greater prevalence of in-store bakeries (ISBs), which can now be found in many leading food retailers throughout Europe. ISBs tend to use one of two options as far as bake-off solutions are concerned. The choice is usually between making bakery goods from scratch using raw ingredients or using dough which is part-baked and then frozen. Most companies and retailers tend to use part-baked frozen products, although some of the larger operators are now moving towards making bakery goods from scratch.
Bake-off solutions such as these offer numerous benefits to food retailers. Besides the improved convenience and reduced timescales compared with baking bread from scratch, there are also cost benefits resulting from more efficient production, given that higher volumes can be turned out for lower cost. Retailers can also offer a wider choice of freshly prepared breads and other bakery goods, which represents a key demand amongst today’s consumers. However, adoption of bake-off solutions does present challenges, namely the reliance upon an efficient cold chain distribution system, as well as the capabilities of employees at the point of sale.
European Bread Consumption
Bread remains an important dietary staple for much of the global population, with consumption levels high across much of Europe. According to a survey carried out in 2020 by Delifrance UK, 5% of consumers buy bread every day, with 50% purchasing it at least once a week. Traditional white, brown, or whole meal leaves are bought weekly by 48% of UK consumers, a figure which decreases to 17% for seeded loaves and 11% for baguettes. Bread consumption patterns vary across Europe – in the UK, for example, 57% of consumers claimed that lunchtime occasions were when they ate the most bread, ahead of breakfast (27%). This contrasts with Germany, where bread consumption is heaviest at breakfast for 46% of consumers and 41% during dinner in the evening, with lunchtime occasions taking a share of just 8%.
The bread market has faced numerous challenges in recent years. Many western markets experienced a dip in demand a few years ago, mainly due to increased health concerns over calorie and salt levels in many types of bread. More recently, the industry has faced mounting costs of key ingredients such as wheat and flour, a situation largely attributed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Data from Eurostat indicated that bread prices in the EU region were up by 18% in August 2022 compared with 12 months earlier. Some of the highest price rises were witnessed in Hungary (up by 66%) and Lithuania (up by 33%), whereas increases were more moderate in western European countries such as France and the Netherlands.
Some of the world’s leading consumers of bread include countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Balkans region of Europe. The table below ranks these countries in terms of per capita consumption, which averages around 50 kg in the EU region.
As can be seen from the table below, per capita consumption of bread is highest in Turkey, at 210 kg. In Turkey, bread is usually consumed at every meal (i.e., during breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and is considered so essential to the daily diet that prices have traditionally been kept artificially low. Many of the country’s bakeries (which typically supply up to 10 different varieties of bread) are state-owned, whose key ingredients are subsidized. The recent rise in bread prices across Turkey – a situation exacerbated by the slump in value of the Turkish lira on the world currency markets – represents a significant concern, given the importance of bread to lower income households.
Further west, key European markets for bread include Germany and France, with per capita consumption estimated at 85 kg and 50 kg respectively. There are believed to be around 10,000 bakery companies in Germany, many of which are struggling with the rising costs of ingredients and energy. A wide range of breads are available in Germany, with rye and pumpernickel two enduring favorites, as well as seeded varieties. In the French market, baguettes represent one of the most popular varieties of bread, accounting for almost a third of total consumption. The average French person eats a baguette every couple of years, with annual consumption estimated at up to 10 billion units per year.
Although more consumers have been turning back towards bread in the period during and after the pandemic, health and nutritional considerations remain a leading market driver. This has been reflected in the emergence of more products incorporating ingredients such as wholegrains, seeds, fiber, and ancient grains (e.g. quinoa, spelt, flax and buckwheat), as well as bread carrying various health claims (e.g. clean-label, free-from, etc.) The Delifrance UK survey found that 40% of consumers would be positively inclined towards breads promoted as being rich in fiber, compared with 38% for bread containing ancient grains and 22% for bread with a lower salt content.
To address changing consumer health demands, many bread manufacturers have been making reformulation efforts, with the result that many different health claims now proliferate within the market. Not all reformulation efforts have been totally successful, however. Towards the end of 2022, a UK study carried out at Oxford University found that industry efforts to reduce the average salt content in a variety of foodstuffs (one of which was bread) between 2015 and 2020 had largely stalled. During this time, the average salt content in bread has undergone relatively little change, with the result that it has one of the highest salt contents within the UK food industry. The current target is for a consumer intake of no more than 6 g per day.
Many European countries are witnessing heightened interest in specialty breads, a trend which carries numerous implications for suppliers of bake-off solutions. Sales have benefited from more sophisticated consumer tastes, as well as the fact that shoppers in some of the larger and more developed markets now appear to be buying bread less frequently but trading up to more premium varieties when they do make purchases. The European market for specialty breads not only includes products fortified with ancient grains (e.g., spelt, buckwheat, amaranth and millet), but also varieties such as sourdough, tiger bread, Italian-style breads (e.g., ciabatta) and bread with additional ingredients, examples of which include olives, cheese, dried fruits, and vegetables (e.g., jalapeno peppers).
The research from Delifrance UK mentioned earlier suggests that consumer interest in specialty breads continues to grow. The survey found that 13% of respondents said they were likely to opt for different types of bread (usually specialty varieties) during the weekend, when they were more likely to be entertaining guests or had more time to devote to mealtimes. Sourdough has become one of the most popular varieties amongst UK consumers, now accounting for 45% of sales of specialty bread. This rises to almost half of all sales of specialty loaves via ISB channels. Sourdough is purchased at least once a week by 6% of UK consumers, a figure which drops to 5% for Italian-style breads such as ciabatta and 4% for specialty breads with additional ingredients.
Key attributes for many types of specialty bread include taste, texture, and the presence of certain ingredients. Aesthetics are also important, given that many consumers are attracted to the rustic and/or hand-crafted appearance usually associated with specialty breads. Sustainability concerns are also apparent within the market – for example, ancient grains are considered kinder to the soil and hence the environment than more traditional crops such as wheat and corn. Ancient grains tend to require less water and have more resistance to pests, with the result that usage of chemicals is reduced.
The Bake-off Solutions Market
As has been stated, demand for part-baked bread and other bake-off solutions remains heavily dependent on purchasing patterns. In France, for example, most consumers prefer to buy their bread fresh, given that traditional and/or artisanal bakeries account for almost 70% of bread purchases. This compares with 44% in Germany and 42% in Italy and falls to just 10% in the UK. By contrast, around 80% of UK households regularly purchase packaged bread and bread supplied via ISBs, with the latter representing the main source of bread purchases for 31% of households. In France, supermarkets and ISB channels account for just over a quarter (26%) of total bread purchases.
The consumer base for part-baked bread is high, given the popularity of freshly baked products. Bread rolls represent an important product sector within the market, due to their compact size and shape, as well as their suitability for foods such as sandwiches. Aside from food retailers and ISBs, part-baked bread is also sold extensively to the European foodservice industry, including operators such as quick service restaurants (QSRs), cafes and sandwich shops. Many foodservice companies have successfully tapped into the consumer desire for warm, freshly based premium bread at various times of the day. Germany accounts for over a fifth of the European market for part-baked bread, largely on the strength of its high bread consumption levels, ahead of France, the UK, and the Netherlands.
The market for part-baked bread also continues to benefit from the emergence of new equipment targeted at part-baked applications, which makes the process easier and more cost-effective for operators. Much of the innovation taking place within this sector has focused upon the development of products with a long or extended shelf-life, as well as developments to ensure the finished bread is visually appealing, tasty and satisfies various health concerns. The use of adapted improvers during the dough conditioning process is also on the high side. Various companies are active within this sector, one example of which is Puratos. The company’s Double Bake Colour frozen bread improvers are specifically designed to overcome the challenges posed by part-baked products. Based on a specific enzyme, Double Bake Colour has been shown to reduce bake-off time by up to 60%, as well as keeping products fresh for longer and minimizing dryness.
One of the European market’s leading suppliers is Delifrance, which forms part of the French co-operative group Vivescia and provides part-baked and bake-off solutions to customers in 100 countries worldwide. Its range of part-baked bread includes rolls, baguettes, and specialty loaves, featuring a host of ingredients – examples include pumpkin, chia and sesame seeds, cranberries, olives, and oregano. Its bake-off solutions are supplied to customers such as bakers, retailers, and foodservice operators.
One of its closest competitors is Lantmännen Unibake, which mostly competes in the market for part-baked bread on the strength of its Schulstad Bakery Solutions business. Its range includes stone-oven baked bread (which offers a rustic appearance and a crisp crust), as well as sourdough, organic and gluten-free varieties. According to Schulstad, its products are ideally suited to the demands of modern consumers – the company states that 56% of consumers consider sourdough to have a strong character, while 55% are willing to pay extra for bread with a rustic-looking appearance.