Reducing the costs of the bread-making process while maintaining quality has been of great benefit to one Kent-based organic baker.

Artisan Bread Original is a specialist baker located in a very hard water area. Maintenance costs for scaled-up steam pipes and steam chambers in ovens and proving rooms were escalating due to limescale deposits.

"We installed a unit from Grander Water, which fits on to the inlet cold water and revitalises it," says Ingrid Greenfield, director of Artisan Bread Original. "The results are impressive. Limescale now just wipes off and the steam pipes remain clear."

This fits with Artisan Bread’s policy of avoiding harsh cleaning chemicals in ’biodynamic’ (ecologically sustainable) food production, and saves a great deal of valuable maintenance time, she says.

"As water is such an important ingredient in good bread, we only use spring water," says Greenfield. "We store this in tanks prior to baking and revitalise it with the Grander Water rods. Biodynamic food has measurably more vitality than organic or conventionally grown food and we want water with a vitality to match our biodynamic ingredients."

Although only a handful of British bakers are using Grander Water at the moment, 280 bakeries in Austria - where Grander is well-known - are said to be using the technology.