It was created in partnership with the likes of the Oxford Brookes Centre for Nutrition & Health and food technology company Camden BRI. “Dozens of other businesses and disciplines have been involved in the birth of Superloaf – from academia to government, scientists and the life sciences, business and investment communities, and an increasing input from the creative industries,” he adds. The company’s first commercial loaf - dubbed Superloaf 2.0 - made its debut in 2021, promising to ‘democratise healthy baking for the common good’. Six years of intensive R&D by inventor Melissa Sharp resulted in ‘the healthiest loaf ever made’, being high in omega-3 to support the body’s immune system and digestive health. The result is a loaf that tastes and toasts exactly as you'd expect, with added hidden superpowers. Trendspotting in 2023: Lay’s overcomes the ‘chips in’ or ‘chips out’ conundrum; Pillsbury creates bakery bouquets for Mother’s Day; and Quinn launches another market-first The working vision from the outset was to deconstruct the vegetable - universally lauded for unique nutritional impact, yet still widely resisted - and reconstruct its beneficial properties into scalable staple foods with mainstream appeal.

Ten years ago, Real Bread Campaign partnered with Food for Life to award points to caterers serving Real Bread (made inhouse or bought in) towards their Food For Life Served Here Award and Food for Life Schools Awards. Newcastle’s Professor Pearson is upbeat: “The science behind Superloaf may well prove a breakthrough for the carb-based food industry – and hopefully for our immunity as a nation too.” What's in the bread No single ingredient will support immunity on its own; it’s the interaction of a range of different ingredients that helps protect the body against disease. Here are some highlights of Superloaf’s 16 natural ingredients: 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. Co-founder Leo Campbell added: “Good nutrition is medicine, and with the help of many leading scientists, significantly funded by the government, SUPERLOAF has been specifically designed to be the first processed staple food with this as its core purpose.The industry is driven by calorie dense solutions whereas we are all about nutrient dense,” he added. The benefits reported by a study carried out using a starter of a particular flour at X hydration, containing lactic acid bacterium Y and yeast Z, fermented for A minutes at B degrees might not necessarily apply to other sourdough starter cultures. Many scientific studies are carried out on animals or in vitro (test tubes, petri dishes, etc), so the benefits for human beings may differ.​ A strong immune system is nature's way of protecting you from ill-health. so, another hidden superpower is our selected mix of the many micro-nutrients we need to support our immune function. I love looking after myself, something I didn’t do prior to my breast cancer diagnosis. For me, everyday involves some sort of exercise whether that be just a dog walk, reformer pilates, yoga or some hiit training. Eating right is also crucial for me. It’s important for us as a team to reap what we sow, which means ensuring our bodies are fueled with the right nutrition. 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.

Following its annual Sourdough September campaign, the Real Bread Campaign noted a rise in claims within the sourdough community. Added Campbell, “Good nutrition is medicine, and with the help of many leading scientists, significantly funded by the government, Superloaf has been specifically designed to be the first processed staple food with this as its core purpose. We want Superloaf to take a lead in food systems becoming the solution, rather than the problem.​Consumers want to healthier foods, yet they don’t necessarily want these items to taste healthier: less sugary, salty or rich. Do you think the understanding of reformulation differs between industry and consumers? She said: “Our vision to take on the western world’s staple food and turn it into what we call an ‘NHS-positive food’ started in a chemo ward. Modern Baker has big ambitions which include taking Superloaf into new markets and venturing into new categories within the bakery market and further afield. Superloaf’s unique ingredient formulation is further optimised by targeted fermentation to amplify a host of nutritional benefits including soluble fibre levels, bioavailability, glycaemic impact, shelf-life and bioactive polyphenol levels.

Superloaf is the first ‘alt-carb’ staple food from food-as-medicine startup Oxford Food Tech, formed with a mission to make a positive impact on one billion diets by 2028. The company was launched in 2021 by Erik Fabian and Jennifer Yoko Olson with a shared vision of a world where people gather daily to share homemade sourdough bread and other fermented foods. Added Young, “It’s great to see so many cooks, chefs and caterers show leadership around a staple of the diet by ditching additive-laden, ultra-processed industrial loaf products, in favour of delicious, nutritious Real Bread.​At the end of 2022 Silicon Valley started to break down the Food Tech investment asset class into its component parts. ‘Food-as-med’ was one of them, recognising the commercial potency in science and tech based solutions aimed at solving the chronic metabolic health crisis facing society.”

The funding has been earmarked to support the application of this unique method in the formulation of other UPFs such as breakfast cereals, pasta, ready meals, yoghurts and pastries. Unhealthy UPFs make up nearly 60% of UK’s calorie intake, ramping up the runaway obesity crisis that is placing immense strain on the country national health system (NHS). Your gut microbiome is a complex community of microbes that live in your gut. Spector describes it as a thriving city, in which the inhabitants come and go over time. The bugs that live in the gut have been found to influence the overall health of an immune system. The healthier the gut microbiome, the healthier the immune system.

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Of the ~1B loaves of bread produced globally every day, over 70% constitute an Ultra-Processed Food, a major contributor to the global epidemic of diet-related chronic illness, an ongoing crisis that’s crippling global healthcare systems to the tune of trillions, while blighting lives and communities. There is another way. The Great Britian Nutrition and Health Claims Register includes none specific to sourdough fermentation, meaning it’s not legal to make a nutrition or health claim that isn't on the register.​