The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

If you care about artisan, etc. ... (UK, but ...)

drogon's picture
drogon

If you care about artisan, etc. ... (UK, but ...)

then have a read of this:

http://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/asa_artisan_packet_mix/

Essentially the Real Bread Campaign have raised a complaint with the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) against some advertising from British Bakels Ltd. who advertise and sell an "artisan"  sour dough pre-mix for bakeries to use. Dry product to oven in 60 minutes.

The ASA declined to take any action, but if you support what the Real Bread Campaign do and are upset at advertising like then then do get in-touch/join the Real Bread Campaign at: http://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/

-Gordon

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Thanks for the link, Gordon. Though I live in Canada now I lived in the UK for several years and always enjoyed 'real ales' as well as flour from some of the small local mills. I like the idea of a Real Bread campaign. I guess they are deliberately claiming one end of the spectrum but I would question a couple of things like ruling out vegetable fats / oils as 'not allowed' in real bread. I use grape seed oil or coconut oil in some of my whole grain breads and I don't see anything unnatural in that. If I got that picky with every single ingredient in every one of my breads I'd spiral down into panic every time I wanted to bake!

That said, I'm all for 'real bread'. :)

drogon's picture
drogon

Their definition doesn't rule-out ingredients other than the basic 4 - see: http://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/what_is_real_bread/

The essence of it all is to keep it as natural (and local) as possible - the biggest gripe is the hidden processing aids, also called "clean label" ingredients by the manufacturers, as they don't need to be listed on the label. I make a brioche which I'd class as real bread - plenty of eggs and butter - my eggs come from a local free-range farm (really free range - I've been there & seen them), and butter via a wholesaler who gets it directly from a farm in the next county (rather than via one of the mega dairy processing plants).

So your use of oils is fair, I reckon, more-so if they're organic/fair trade, etc.

Cheers,

-Gordon

 

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Oh, okay then. It's a bit confusing as "vegetable fat" is listed under the heading "What Real Bread isn't", as an ingredient in industrial bread.

This would also be a bit problematic in a place like Canada where distances are greater and getting 'local' organic flour is very difficult within a 50 mile radius! There is some grain grown here on Vancouver Island but very little and almost all spoken for. However, I can get organic Canadian-grown grain from Alberta and Saskatchewan. Or I can get non-organic (but fairly clean) wheat locally which I mill myself (slowly and labouriously, with a small hand mill) or which is trucked off-Island for milling. Many factors to balance, all which affect the cost and therefore the price of the bread to the customer.

doughooker's picture
doughooker

Without a definition of "artisan bread" you can't regulate the advertising of same.

In France there there are legal standards for bread production:

http://www.cooksinfo.com/french-bread-law-1993

doughooker's picture
doughooker

This might be easier to read.

Note that this decree forbids par-bakes, but does not forbid mechanical dough handling in dividers, rounders, molders, etc. One would then ask if a definition of "artisan bread" would exclude mechanical dough handling and require only working by hand. If it forbade mechanical dough handling, where would an electric mixer fit in?

Article 1 -- Bread called "pain maison" or an equivalent name can only be sold under those names if the bread has been entirely kneaded, worked and cooked on their place of sale to the ultimate consumer. However, this denomination can also be used when the bread is sold away from the premises to the ultimate consumer by the professional who ensured that the operations of kneading, shaping and cooking occurred at the same place.

 

Article 2 -- Bread called "pain de tradition française", "pain traditionnel français", "pain traditionnel de France" or some name combining these terms can only be sold if they have not been frozen at any point during their making, do not contain any additives, and are produced from a dough which has the following characteristics:

 

1. Made only from a mix of wheat flours suitable for making bread, safe water and cooking salt;

2. Fermented with yeast suitable for breads (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and a starter, in the sense of article 4 of this Decree, or either yeast or a starter;

3. Relative to the weight of the (wheat) flour used will contain no more than

a) 2 percent broad bean flour;

b) .5 percent soya flour

c) .3 percent malted wheat flour

 

Article 3 -- Breads sold under the category of "pain au levain" must be made from a starter as defined by Article 4, just have a potential maximum pH of 4.3 and an acidity of at least 900 parts per million

 

Article 4 -- Starter is a paste made from wheat or rye, or just one of these, with safe water added and salt (optional), and which undergoes a naturally acidifying fermentation, whose purpose is to ensure that the dough will rise. The starter contains acidifying microphone-flora made up primarily of lactic bacteria and yeasts. Adding bread yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is allowed when the dough reaches its last phase of kneading, to a maximum amount of .2 percent relative to the weight of flour used up to this point.

 

The starter can be dehydrated provided that the dehydrated starter contains one billion live bacteria and one to 10 million yeasts per gram. After rehydration and possibly, addition of bread yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) under the conditions envisaged with the preceding subparagraph, it must be able to ensure a correct lifting of the dough.

 

The starter can have micro-organisms added to it, authorized by decree of the Minister for Agriculture and the Minister in charge of Consumers, made upon advice of the commission of food technology created by the decree n° 89-530 of 28 July 1989.

 

Delivered at Paris, 13 September 1993.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

each other.  Artisanal was invented by marketing people not bakers,  They created it to sell crap bread for higher prices.  Can't blame them for that - they are in the business of separating fools from their money and being thanked for it.  Bakers want to be Master Bakers and know Artisan Bakers are such just because they call themselves Artisan Bakers.  Artisan means nothing today and is worthless.  No Master Baker would ever want to be one.

The traditional definition of Artisan Bread is bread of the highest quality, using the best ingredients that is baked by real Artisan Bakers in small batches, without the use of any machines and baked in a wood fired masonry ovens.

Anything else is just bread no matter how good - real or no.  Thankfully there are still many traditional Artisan Bakers around the world today making real traditional Artisan Bread.

Arjon's picture
Arjon

I can see filing the complaint to shed some light on the underlying issue (and the real bread campaign itself), but unless advertising standards in the UK are very different from here in Canada, there was no chance the ASA would act unless the word "artisan" was being used in a manner barred by existing usage regulations or so clearly misleading and/or untrue as to be fraudulent. 

The former doesn't seem to apply, and unfortunately, the latter seems arguable, partly because there are no regulatory or legal conditions that must be met in order to use the word.