Despite pressure on food manufacturers to cut sugar and calories from products, Britain’s bakers seem to be shying away from healthier NPD.
Research conducted exclusively for British Baker’s annual Bakery Market Report shows that NPD and buying strategies designed to reduce salt, sugar or fat will be less of a focus in 2018 than in 2017.
In the case of sugar reduction, for example, 47% of businesses surveyed said they ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they would aim to reduce sugar in products in 2018, versus 49% the previous year. However, more significantly, the proportion that ‘disagreed’ that they would aim to reduce sugar has soared from 33% a year ago to 49% this year.
In the case of fat reduction, the proportion who said they would aim to reduce fat has fallen from 48% to 34%, while the proportion who said they would not has risen from 42% to 64%.
Similarly, the proportion of bakers who did not plan to reduce salt has risen by more than 20 percentage points, from 32% to 56%.
The survey also found that, despite continued pressure on margins and high streets in general, the proportion of businesses that ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ they were more positive about the future of their bakery than a year ago has risen from 70% to 76%.
Further details of the survey can be found in British Baker’s Bakery Market Report, which is available free of charge to all British Baker subscribers by following this link (you will need to log in to download the report).
If you are not a subscriber, you can purchase the report for £250, or sign up for a year’s subscription to British Baker here.
The report is a unique snapshot of Britain’s retail bakery market, offering details of the ‘BB75’ – the country’s 75 largest bakery-focused operators – and much, much more.
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