FDBusiness.com

British Bakels, manufacturers and distributors of bread, pastry, cake and confectionery ingredients, is celebrating 75 years since it was founded in 1947. To mark this achievement, the company has collaborated with food futurist, Lyndon Gee, on a brand-new report – Baking Past, Present and Future, which looks back at the business’ key achievements, landmark movements in the food industry’s history and what might lie ahead for the next seven decades.

Forward thinking is a key philosophy for British Bakels and this report identifies key trends that can impact the future of the baking industry. For example, novel ingredients, sustainability, technology, consumer behaviours and ethics are all forecast to influence the baking landscape.

Novel ingredients will become everyday foods with huge growth forecast in algae and seaweed, owing to their versatility and health qualities. A ’shroom boom’ is also expected, from psychoactive mushrooms being adopted in mental health, to their ability to be used to create edible frameworks for flavour and as edible packaging.

To help combat climate change and enhance sustainability, staples such as grains will be genetically edited to survive on very little water and hybrid genetically edited plants will enable people to grow their own food. Sharing apps such as Olio or Too Good to Go will expand and regulation may make food waste illegal in the food production and retail sectors.

Technological developments will continue to lead change in the baking sector. AI will play an integral role in industrial baking, using robots with 5,000 potential flavours, ingredients and aromas to create innovative combinations while also analysing real time sales, data and buying habits.

Where consumer behaviour is concerned, ethics will become even more important. Seventy-seven per cent of consumers are already focused on the environmental impact of the products they buy, and this statistic will increase, particularly among Generation Z[i].

Paul Morrow, Chairman of British Bakels, comments: “We are thrilled to be celebrating 75 years of success. It’s hard to believe that food rationing and the ‘National Loaf’ were in place when we first set up British Bakels in 1947. Since then, there’s been a revolution in both technology and ingredients and today’s consumers enjoy a vast array of different breads and baked goods.

“Over the next decade, sustainability will be at the forefront of everything we do. Responsible sourcing, reducing food waste, health and plant-based solutions form integral parts of our strategy for the future, aligning with increasing customer expectation. This dynamic ethos is very entrepreneurial in that we are constantly finding new ways to support our customers.

“While trends and ingredients will certainly evolve in the future, the core business model will not change. Bakels develop products to meet consumer and customer needs, manufacture them safely and efficiently, and offer technical application support to foster long term sustainable relationships. That’s what British Bakels have done for the past 75 years and will continue to do for the next.”

British Bakels has enjoyed many successes over the past 75 years. It supplies a variety of ingredients for both retail and food service, which includes enough to produce 2.36 billion burger buns each year, as well as 129 million Danish pastries and 115 million doughnuts.

Innovation and NPD are at the heart of British Bakels. Multiseed Bread Concentrate is a great example of this, which launched in 2004, and is the companies most successful product to date. Ingredients for bread loaves collectively contribute to the production of 276 million loaves of bread each year.

Founded on 25 February 1947, British Bakels is part of the Bakels Group Worldwide, which produces 2000 bakery products and employs 2750 people across the globe.

[i] British Bakels Report – Baking Past, Present and Future, 2022