Modern Baker Ltd Public Funding

Modern Baker is the UK's largest healthy baking brand. In collaboration with Campden BRI and Puratos, Modern Baker intends to adapt a novel ingredient Blend towards several industrially-scalable end-products, including bread, pasta, breakfast cereals, ready meals, biscuits and cakes. These play a significant role in the health of the nation. Consequently, the novel Blend will enhance accessibility and the nutritional benefits across multiple commonly eaten products. In this project, the consortium refocuses from the food industry's 'calorie-dense' approach, towards a new, 'nutrient-dense' approach that reformulates the production of carbohydrate-based packaged foods. Bringing the health benefits that specialist baking can bring to digestion (e.g., reducing the glucose release and providing beneficial substrates for the gut microbiota) which current packaged foods often neglect. The consortium believes the development of this innovative broadly-applicable Blend has the potential to transform existing commercially available processed products. The Blend will allow the production of alternative and affordable healthy flour-based and baked goods for both B2B (food manufacturers) and B2C (retail and direct-to-consumer).

"Modern Baker is a rapidly growing UK food manufacturer and retailer specialising in long-fermented and baked foods. Its ambition is to disrupt the baking industry and to redefine the market. The proposed project seeks to use cutting-edge food science to naturally improve nutritional quality and shelf-life."

"Modern Baker is a rapidly growing UK food manufacturer and retailer specialising in long-fermented and baked foods. Its ambition is to disrupt the baking industry and to redefine the market. The proposed project seeks to use cutting edge food science to naturally improve nutritional quality and shelf-life."

Modern Baker is a rapidly growing UK food manufacturer and retailer specialising in long-fermented and baked foods. Its ambition is to disrupt the baking industry and to redefine the market. The proposed project seeks to use cutting edge food science to naturally improve product shelf life.

The proposed project seeks to drive the development and commercialisation of an innovative range of scalable artisanal sourdough products with significantly reduced salt and increased fibre. There is growing scientific evidence that suggests sourdough could be used to overcome the challenges of providing more nutritious bread (lower salt/sugar, increased fibre) to a wider audience whilst improving product quality and palatability. The project will establish an innovative, integrated UK supply chain of sustainably sourced ingredients, including seaweed and organic cereal grains, and tailor them for sourdough production in order to overcome the scalability challenges that have previously inhibited efforts to bring genuine organic sourdough products to the mass market

Awaiting Public Project Summary

Modern Baker Ltd is a rapidly growing UK manufacturer and retailer specialising in fermented, organic health foods. In the proposed project it is seeking to evaluate the feasibility of developing its own branded range of organic products using novel, scalable fermentation methodologies tailored to unique, UK sourced ingredients. The company believes that its new product range could be strongly differentiated by an innovative combination of novel manufacturing (including proprietary culture selection), exclusively UK sourced functional ingredients and unique packaging and product design. Whilst continuing to adhere to three core principles that match with prevailing consumer demands – great taste, naturally nutritious and clear provenance (>95% organic, fully traceable) – Modern Baker also intends that its products have international, mass-market potential. Existing products that have been developed specifically for the Free From market, such as gluten-free (GF) breads, have struggled to achieve scalability, in part because of inferior palatability in comparison with conventional wheat bread and their low baking performance (which leads to high cost of goods and restricted product availability). Modern Baker intends to capitalise on recent scientific evidence and consumer feedback that suggests that sourdough (& a return to fermentation / cultured foods) could be the “platform technology” for products with improved quality, nutritional properties and shelf life; sourdough baked products require substantially fewer ingredients than conventionally produced equivalents (which require additional yeast, gluten, fats, reducing agents, soya flour, emulsifiers, preservatives and other (often enzymatic) processing aids). In the proposed project, Modern Baker intends to evaluate the market potential for its pioneering product range via extensive market research and engagement with prospective customers, collaborators and suppliers.