Consumers are becoming fed up with the amount of chemicals that are suddenly appearing in supermarket bread products. Many of these chemicals are almost certainly detrimental to human health and our digestive system, but the burden of proof is on us to prove that, when it should be with the food producers to prove that these ingredients are genuinely safe. However, thanks to the hard work of many bloggers and food writers, people are beginning to push back against the move towards profit over health.

Take a walk down the aisles of the better quality supermarkets and you’ll now see now foods or variations of products appearing announcing they are ‘preservative free’ or that they ‘don’t contain artificial ingredients’. On the one hand this is great news, however, we’re now having to pay a huge premium for food producers to NOT add ultra processed ingredients to our foods. This is partly due to the fact that the ultra processed food (UPF) ingredients massively prolong shelf life, or conversely, not adding them potentially causes more food waste and reduced profits. However, bread manufacturers have spotted a loophole.

If you’ve ever had fresh bread you’ll know if doesn’t last long. For example, a baguette bought in the morning is stale by the afternoon. even homemade bread is well past its best by day two. So how do you get a bread from the manufacturing facility to the warehouse, to the national distribution centre, to the regional distribution centre, to the supermarket warehouse, to the supermarket shelf and to the home all within a few hours? You can’t – it’s simply not possible unless you can make your bread last longer. This is where the many UPF additives come in.

Propionic acid and the other propionates inhibit mould and bacteria growth, thereby extending food shelf life without altering the taste or texture of the bread. Here is list of them with their corresponding ‘E-number’:

• E280 – Propionic acid. A carboxylic acid that inhibits mould and bacterial growth.
• E281 – Sodium propionate is a sodium salt of propionic acid but in a more stable, odourless form often used in dry mixes and doughs
• E282 – Calcium propionate is the most commonly used propionate in commercial bread production. It’s effective against mould and is preferred for its neutral taste and ease of handling
• E283 – Potassium propionate also used as a preservative in baked goods and processed cheeses.

But what do you do if you want to appeal to the people who want UPF-free bread? Well, there is a solution but it involves a clever loophole

How to make Propionic Acid and Potassium Propionate naturally meaning you don’t need to declare it in your list of ingredients

To make Propionic Acid and Potassium Propionate naturally you’re going to need two special species of Propionibacterium bacteria, namely Propionibacterium acidipropionici and Propionibacterium freudenreichii. Next you will need to ferment some wheat flour with these bacteria and hey presto you’ve made Propionic Acid and Potassium Propionate. So some bright spark one day realised that you could disguise the addition of E280 and E283 within your ingredients as simply ‘fermented wheat flour’ – the exact same thing that is used to make sourdough – no need to declare these UPF ingredients on the label. Next level genius which I’m sure was rewarded properly, however, it’s not been such good news for us consumers.

Does that mean we’re being lied to?

In my opinion, and the opinion of a lot of people who know about the food industry, yes, we’re certainly being lied to. Food producers are adding UPF ingredients to food and disguising them as something natural and innocuous. Is the fact we’re being lied to about this a bad thing? This question is much more difficult to answer. The reality is that the only fresh bread we can really ever have is either from a local bakery or made at home. Maybe we’re lying to ourselves imagining we can get fresh and wholesome food from a ‘convenience’ store. It’s almost impossible to get from field to kitchen without using artificial means such as pesticides, mould suppressants or bacteria inhibitors – so maybe products that are reducing their reliance on UPF ingredients is a good thing. However, it doesn’t get away from the fact we’re being lied to. If you’re adding a UPF ingredient to your food, no matter how it is produced, it should be declared on the packaging. Instead we’re paying a premium for a ‘clean’ food that is simply using a loophole to hide the added UPF ingredients.