Funds are to be used to apply the firm’s breakthrough Alt-Nutrition ingredient more widely in the formulation of other ultra-processed foods (UPF) including pastries, breakfast cereals, pasta, ready meals, and yoghurts. The result of five years’ R&D, the seeded Superloaf contained “a unique blend of fibres” and “plant chemicals” said Modern Baker co-founder Leo Campbell. It was “designed to optimise your gut health”, which in turn supported immunity. We see the importance and value in Real Bread being made from a small list of ingredients and we are proud to have it as part of our Silver and Gold Food for Life Served Here Awards,”​ said Sophie Pritchard, business development manager for Food for Life. Superloaf has shown that carb-based UPFs can be re-engineered ‘for the common good’ by combining the economic and format advantages of being produced at scale with Modern’s Baker’s Alt-Nutrition concept, principally from prebiotic plant fibres, bioactive plant compounds and targeted fermentation. A seaweed wild-harvested in the Hebrides and a rich source of plant micronutrients. Its key role in boosting immunity is reducing blood sugar release, as well as being a natural source of iodine.

The loaf also gets the thumbs-up from Raymond Blanc, whose Manoir aux Quat’Saisons restaurant is near the Modern Baker’s bakery-cum-laboratory. The work it is doing to improve the nutrition of staple foods “is exciting and important,” he says. “Who knows, maybe the bread will start being called ‘the second Oxford vaccine.”

What has been your biggest challenge so far and how have you overcome this?

SUPERLOAF reengineers carb-based Ultra Processed Foods (UPFs) using bio-active plant-based compounds and targeted fermentation.

The company formed as a response to the glaring fact that poor diet now stands alongside climate change as one of humanity’s most greatest challenges. Contains valuable soluble fibre that is known to improve blood sugar control as well as providing the specific prebiotic fibre that feeds the billions of microbes/bugs in our gut that are important to our immunity. A preference for bread produced from wheat that has been grown and milled as locally as possible to the point of serving. The salt level should be no more than 1% and ideally at or below 0.85%, in line with the UK Government’s salt reduction targets for bread. Modern Baker’s potential partners going forward are food manufacturers and businesses that can “see beyond HFSS” to a point where “food nutrition starts to become the currency”, he added.

What’s in store for the future?

Modern Baker secured funding from five Innovate UK grants and private investors and worked in partnership with several scientific organisations including Newcastle University’s Biosciences Institute, Oxford Brookes Centre for Nutrition & Health and Campden BRI. In March of this year, Modern Baker partnered with Hovis and Marks & Spencer to unveil a mass produced version, Superloaf 5.0, which has recently been named a finalist of the New Bakery Product of the Year category for the upcoming Baking Industry Awards 2023. From that moment, we [Sharp and Campbell] could not get that image out of our minds and shortly after that we made a commitment to do everything in our powers to change these foods for better, starting with bread​.” Dubbed “the healthiest loaf ever made” and geared towards supporting immune health, the NPD went on to win the Innovation category at Britain’s Best Loaf just a few months later.