The loaves packed with chemicals – and why buying the healthy stuff is worth it

An astonishing €400m is spent on bread and bread products annually in Ireland, with wrapped bread the most popular. From comforting slices of toast in the morning to lunchtime sandwiches, it’s a backbone of many of our diets — yet around 95 per cent of it is ultra-processed.

Even healthy-sounding wholegrain and multi-seed loaves are laced with additives and E-numbers such as preservatives, synthetic emulsifiers and stabilisers — which are the hallmark of UPF products.

These keep mass-produced loaves fresher for longer, allowing them to be transported longer distances, bulk out poorer quality flour to keep manufacturing costs low, and make the resulting bread softer, uniform and more palatable.

Anti-UPF purists say the best alternative is to bake your own. But if you don’t have the hours spare to spend kneading and proving, there is hope.

The UPF ingredients you should try to avoid are emulsifiers E282, E472e, E471 and E481 used to give a consistent, pleasingly chewy texture.

These ingredients are in many of our best selling breads. Some emulsifiers have been linked to inflammation in the gut and conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel condition Crohn’s disease. Others have linked them to heart problems, though it isn’t yet clear if they directly cause the issues.

Commenting on one study last year, Kevin Whelan, a professor of dietetics at King’s College London, said: ‘Animal studies suggest some emulsifiers can change the microbiome and cause inflammation in the gut, but there is very little research in humans.

‘Some emulsifiers were found to be eaten in higher amounts by people who went on to develop cardiovascular disease, but we don’t know whether the additives caused this or whether some other aspect of diet or lifestyle may be responsible.’

There is greatest concern about DATEM esters, synthetic emulsifiers also known as E472e, or mono and diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono and diglycerides of fatty acids.

‘These synthetic emulsifiers aren’t naturally metabolised by the body,’ Professor Pete Wilde, food scientist at the Quadram Institute in Norwich, says. ‘But the evidence for their impact in humans remains unclear.’

Many popular bread loaves also contain calcium propionate (listed as E282 on the label), a preservative which releases acid into food to prevent mould forming.

Chris Young, an expert in industrial loaf additives who leads the charity Sustain’s Real Bread Campaign, says: ‘Some people report it gives them migraines and it’s also been linked to digestive problems such as bloating and diarrhoea.’

Other bread manufacturers put additional wheat protein to keep the bread soft, along with all the other emulsifiers and preservatives.

Another additive to watch out for is carboxyl methyl cellulose, often listed as E466, which is found mostly in gluten-free bread. ‘Basic cellulose is found in the cell walls of most living things, from humans to plants,’ says Prof Wilde.

‘But modified cellulose, like this one, is usually used as a thickener and stabiliser — but has also been linked with inflammation in the gut.’

One small trial in 2022 found adults who consumed more of it were more likely to have abdominal discomfort after eating and fewer different types of bacteria in the gut, a phenomenon which has been linked to type 2 diabetes and obesity.

The final thing which almost all UPF loaves contain is ascorbic acid, often listed as Vitamin C. Mr Young says: ‘It’s not like eating an orange — this stuff is synthesised in an industrial process. It’s unlikely to cause most people any problems, but it’s not going to offer any health benefits either.’

A simple way to avoid a lot of the artificial preservatives and additives in bread is to buy organic — they won’t contain emulsifiers and E numbers and will, in general, be far lower in UPF ingredients.

Many organic breads contain ingredients which, in the main, wouldn’t look out of place in a normal kitchen cupboard.

The only UPF ingredients are wheat gluten, barley malt extract and ascorbic acid.

Overall, Prof Wilde says breads which have only ‘two or three’ UPF ingredients, without emulsifiers, could be classed as low-UPF products. Most freshly baked bread from in-store bakeries would fall into this category.

It is possible to find UPFfree bread outside an artisan bakery. Put simply, what you’re looking for are ingredients you’d recognise from your own kitchen.

Look for breads that contain just wheat flour, water, rye flour, salt and wholemeal wheat flour, with no additives or artificial ingredients at all.

The exception, which you’ll see on almost all non-wholemeal bread, are vitamins and minerals added to flour to make up for those lost during processing. These include calcium (sometimes listed as calcium carbonate), iron, thiamine (Vitamin B2) and niacin (Vitamin B3). Scientists agree they don’t make products UPF.

Bread made at home, either by hand or in a breadmaker, will also count as UPF-free.

Happily, these products are all simply ‘processed’ foods — whole foods combined with basic culinary ingredients.