Wholemeal in white loaf recipe leaves customers with sour faces

Bakery accused of making sourdough bread taste like ‘cardboard’ says it was only trying to boost nutrition

OCADO shoppers are up in arms after an upmarket white sourdough loaf was changed to include wholemeal flour.

Customers have given the online supermarket one-star reviews for Bertinet Bakery White Sourdough, branding the loaf as “ruined”, “disgusting” and “cardboard”. The brand is also criticised on Twitter and on Waitrose’s website.

Bertinet, part of the Gail’s cafes owner Bread Holdings, added wholemeal, barley and spelt flours to a recipe that previously contained only white wheat flour, water and salt.

One Ocado shopper wrote: “I cannot believe Bertinet is allowed to sell this as white sourdough. It is absolutely not.” Another said: “When we want white toast we actually want white toast.”

There are no regulations on what can be called a white loaf. Only the terms “wholemeal” and “wheat germ” have specific rules for manufacturers to be able to use them.

Tom Molnar, chief executive of Bread Holdings, said: “We have a very loyal consumer base which as a small business we value enormously. We do recognise that not everyone likes the changes to their favourite sourdough.”

Mr Molnar said the change was “aligned to our overall mission to make better quality bread in an everyday sliced loaf for more people to enjoy for sandwiches and toasting”.

The costs of wheat and running ovens have been driven up by the war in Ukraine. However, the Bertinet Bakery stressed the change had actually added cost to increase nutrition.

The bakery was founded by Richard Bertinet but he left in 2018 when it was acquired by Bread Holdings, which also runs upmarket bakery chain Gail’s.

Mr Bertinet, who has not been involved with the brand at all since 2020, said his dream had been to make loaves with only three ingredients – wheat, water and salt.

“That’s what people loved about the bread,” he said. Mr Molnar said the additions meant the products were “now more balanced, with better depth of flavour and increased freshness”.

Bertinet was previously sold in Sainsbury’s as well as Ocado and Waitrose, but lost distribution with the supermarket in September when Sainsbury’s shook up its bread range. The wider Bread Holdings business still trades with the supermarket.

Bertinet is still an authentic sourdough, it is one of 100 bakeries signed up to the Real Bread Loaf Mark scheme.

The scheme differentiates between breads without additives and leavened only using a live starter culture, with no baker’s yeast or other raising agents.

Chris Young, of the Real Bread Campaign, said shoppers were often buying bread that was marketed as sourdough but was in fact a “fundamentally different product”.

Mr Young said: “We call this ‘sourfaux’ and in a number of cases retailers are charging a premium for it.”