Antony Worrall Thompson
Antony Worrall Thompson backs campaign to celebrate sliced bread
Celebrity chef shares his secret recipe for the perfect bacon sandwich and celebrates 50 years of the Chorleywood Bread Proces
We may all know the saying but after 50 years many of us will take for granted the method which changed breakfast and lunchtimes over Britain. The method that makes bread production possible on a large scale, the Chorleywood Bread Process, is regarded as one of the most significant inventions of the last five decades. Introduced in 1961, it uses British wheat to produce over nine million loaves of bread each day - revolutionising meals and snacks across the country - from toast, sandwiches, and desserts such as bread and butter pudding.
Bread made the Chorleywood way can use more British wheat. Nowadays, around 80% of the wheat used by millers and bakers is British, whereas in 1960 more than two thirds was imported from overseas. In fact, much bread today is made using entirely British wheat. The process is now used in 30 countries around the world - including in France. Bread produced using the Chorleywood bread process is also just as good for you as bread baked using more traditional methods. An investigation by Campden BRI in 2008 found that the vitamin content of bread baked using the Chorleywood bread process is very similar to bread baked using longer fermentation methods including the use a traditional starter sponge and bulk methods; this is true when comparing both white and wholemeal bread. Earlier studies in the 1960s and 1970s reached the same conclusion.
Salt levels in sliced and wrapped bread have been reduced by some 37% over the past ten years and the Federation of Bakers continues to work closely with the Department of Health to implement further reductions. The Chorleywood system does not require the use of more salt than long fermentation baking methods, and in fact sliced and wrapped bread can be lower in salt.
In the following video, celebrity Chef Antony Worrall Thompson celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Chorleywood Bread Process and gives his recipe for what sliced bread was truly made for, the perfect bacon sandwich.
information visit: www.bakersfederation.org.uk