Sharp’s researchers confirmed what nutritionists have long known, that immunity is supported not through a single ingredient, but through the interaction of a range of different ingredients in a healthy diet. “Building a stronger immune system isn’t about one-off miracle foods, it’s about eating the right foods every day: hence our focus on the UK’s staple food,” says Professor Jeff Pearson, who led the team at Newcastle. If you had to name staple foods contributing to Britain’s poor diet – one of the factors blamed for this country’s high death toll from Covid-19 – there’s little doubt industrially-made sliced bread would be near the top of the list. The clean label sliced loaf specifically targets digestive and gut health, while offering unique immune support and Omega-3 health benefits. 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.​ As our first ‘Alternative-Nutrition’ product on a supermarket shelf, SUPERLOAF, is a loaf of bread, people naturally assume we’re a food company. But we’re not. We’re a nutrition business, we innovate alternative nutrition solutions for Ultra-Processed Foods.

Eating probiotics, such as live yogurt, unpasteurised artisan cheese and fermented foods, also encourages the growth of microbes. But it hasn’t been proven that they reach the gut. The advice in Spector’s book, Spoon-Fed, is to limit ultra-processed foods, sugars, sweeteners and preservatives, as they have been found to “reduce the diversity of bacteria” in your gut. The most oft-seen claims include being more nutritious: higher in fibre and a good source of pre- and probiotics; better digestibility: lower in gluten, glycaemic index (GI) and FODMAPs; and, of course, is additive and yeast-free. We already know what version 6.0 and version 7.0 will look like. There is a lot of momentum around evolving the concept now we have our first mass market Superloaf up and running,” he said. “We are looking at other routes to market for our nutritionally dense solution and that includes foodservice and in-store bakery as well as other branded options.” 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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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. Another way in which Sourhouse is encouraging American and Canadian bakers ‘to sourdough’ is by giving away free sourdough starter. The project is scaling up slowly with the goal to give away 5,000 starters by the end of 2024.

Modern Baker’s new bread is the result of “tens of thousands of hours, sleepless nights and millions of cul-de-sacs and, gratifyingly, some fantastic breakthroughs” Campbell says. Following its annual Sourdough September campaign, the Real Bread Campaign noted a rise in claims within the sourdough community.Simarlarly to 2.0, the Superloaf NPD is based around optimised fibres – the benefits of which include slower glucose absorption, reduced-calorie load and optimised gut microbiome activity, Campbell said.

Aiming to reframe UPFs as positive nutrition, Modern Baker’s research has been focused on replicating the nutrient profile found in a fruit, veg and whole grain diet from natural plant sources, along with developing the processes required to integrate it into processed foods. 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.​ The bread cost “many millions of pounds” to create, with funding from five Innovate UK grants and private investors. It was developed in partnership with several scientific organisations, including Newcastle University’s Biosciences Institute, food technology giant Camden BRI and the Oxford Brookes Centre for Nutrition & Health. “No one single company can do this on its own,” said Campbell. “You need an ecosystem of partners.”Alexander Vasis, senior buyer, bread and morning goods said M&S was “delighted to be partnering with Modern Baker to bring the nutritious Superloaf to our shelves from April. We know our customers are increasingly health conscious, so it’s great to offer an innovative new product made specifically to support gut health, alongside our Vitamin D fortified range. We are sure our customers are going to love it.” The new bread has an artisanal look but is designed to be an everyday option. Modern Baker had “worked out processes so that we can have the best of everything” Campbell said. Plus, it was “delicious” he added. “If it wasn’t, we’d be dead in the water.” The seeded, wrapped wholemeal bread, made by Oxford-based Modern Baker, contains a “unique” blend of fibres and plant chemicals aimed at optimising gut health and slowing the absorption of glucose in the small intestine, both of which help immunity. It is also lower in calories than other equivalent mass-produced loaves – although this was incidental rather than a primary aim, according to Modern Baker’s founder Melissa Sharp. The vision came following a cofounder’s epiphany in a chemo ward, so uniquely, it takes cellular-level human biology as its starting point.