Real Bread Celebrates Sourdough in September
Part of the charity Sustain – the alliance for better food and farming, the Real Bread, sustains in September a campaign to promote the sourdough bread, as Britain’s apparent love of this type of product is growing.
The Real Bread Campaign believes that some manufacturers and retailers may be taking advantage of the consumer’s desire.
“The only ingredients necessary to make genuine sourdough are flour, water and salt. One supermarket’s ‘Sour Dough [sic.] Bread Mix’ lists more than twenty ingredients and artificial additives, including an unspecified added flavoring. Meanwhile, the sixteen listed on another company’s so-called ‘simple sourdough’ mix include mono- and diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids. A third packet mix contains added yeast”, the officials from Real Bread Campaign said.
Real Bread Campaign coordinator Chris Young said “Britain’s shoppers deserve better than to be sold the promise of a shortcut that turns out to be an expensive way of making an additive-laden loaf without the benefits genuine sourdough offers. Surely it says something when a manufacturer feels the need to add flavoring.”
Real Bread underlines that, by definition, the only ingredients necessary to make genuine sourdough are flour and water. From this a baker will nurture the yeasts and lactic acid bacteria that occur naturally on cereals, and therefore in the flour, to make a live starter culture. A pinch of salt is a useful addition and some bakers might include other natural ingredients for variety.
They mention that sourdough should not contain:
- commercial yeast
- inert, dried sourdough powder
- sourdough concentrate
- yoghurt, vinegar, or other non-sourdough acidifier
- flavorings, preservatives, processing aids and other artificial additives