Ocado shoppers are in uproar after a bakery changed the recipe for a ‘white’ sourdough to include wholemeal flour.
Bertinet Bakery White Sourdough, which is for sale at Waitrose and Ocado, has been slammed by customers online, many of whom have written one star reviews for the bread.
The recipe was altered to add wholemeal, barley and spelt flours, where it previously contained only white wheat flour, water and salt.
Many branded the new loaf, which is for sale on the Waitrose website for £3.60, ‘disgusting’ and said the new recipe had ‘ruined’ the dish, calling it ‘a disaster.’
MailOnline has approached Bertinet Bakery for comment.
Ocado shoppers are in uproar after a bakery changed the recipe for Bertinet Bakery White Sourdough to include wholemeal flour
One commented it was a ‘big corporate mis-step’, adding: ‘The recent recipe change has been disastrous.
‘Such a shame. The taste has noticeable cheapened.’
Meanwhile another wrote: ‘New recipe completely changed this bread, horrible now.’
A third added: ‘Bring back old recipe! Let me know when you change the recipe back to the old one, I will start buying again!’
Many branded the new loaf, which is for sale on the Waitrose website for £3.60, ‘disgusting’ and said the new recipe had ‘ruined’ the dish, calling it ‘a disaster’
A fourth commented: ‘Why change something good for something horrible? So disappointed that they’ve changed the recipe.
‘It was the only bread I could eat without getting GI problems. This is no different than normal bread now and I can’t eat it anymore.
‘Please go back to the simple ingredients that made it unique and digestible.’
The description online of the loaf reads: ‘We’re Bertinet Bakery. And we make proper sourdough bread.
‘Here’s the thing. It hasn’t always been easy to get hold of real, good bread. You could find sourdough in artisan bakeries. But the options were…limited. So we set out to bring better bread to every table.
‘By reshaping and slicing our sourdough loaves, we’re making them easier to enjoy every day.’
The bakery was founded by Richard Bertinet in Bath, Somerset, in 2012 with the hope to ‘produce artisan bread for as wide an audience as possible’
It continued: ‘We bake our sourdough with wheat, emmer, barley & spelt grains – each chosen for their depth of flavour and nutrition. Never with any artificial preservatives or added sugars.
‘For us it’s not only about fermentation time and starter age. Crafting the best sourdough requires a caring human working with nature, instinct and decades of training.
‘The bread tells us when it’s ready but only a chosen few bakers listen and understand. This is bread, made better.’
There are no regulations for what can be called ‘white bread’, so the loaf can continue to be sold as advertised – despite containing wholemeal flour.
The bakery was founded by Richard Bertinet in Bath, Somerset, in 2012 with the hope to ‘produce artisan bread for as wide an audience as possible’.
He went on to sell the bakery to The Bread Factory in 2019.
Tom Molnar, chief executive of Bread Holdings, told The Telegraph the change was ‘100 per cent positive intention’.
Bertinet Bakery White Sourdough, which is for sale at Waitrose and Ocado, has been slammed by customers online, many of whom have written one star reviews for the bread
He added it was ‘aligned to our overall mission to make better quality bread in an everyday sliced loaf for more people to enjoy for sandwiches and toasting’.
In February, the price of wheat was sent soaring by the war in Ukraine, leaving British families hit with even higher food bills.
The cost of the grain peaked at a 14-year high of £7.16 per bushel due to threats of supply disruptions.
Ukraine and Russia account for a third of the world’s wheat exports, meaning prices are heavily dependent on supply from the two countries.
Wheat is a staple in foods such as pasta and bread, so increases will be felt by consumers.
Food price hikes will be a further headache for families already grappling with the cost of living crisis.
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