Lidl sourdough bread: Firm forced to rename loaf after customer complained the 'sourfaux' is not made from sourdough

Lidl has been forced to rename one of its bread loaves and drop the word ‘sourdough’ after a customer raised the fact that the bread was in fact made mainly from wheat flour. The Sourdough Rye Crusty Bloomer is now called the Crusty Wheat and Rye Bloomer after the customer complained in June.

The customer said that the bread was made from 56% wheat flour and just 12% rye flour. It caused a fierce row, with Lidl at first rejecting the complaint which prompted the Real Bread Campaign to take action.

Lidl rejected the second complaint so following this the Campaign took their grievances to Trading Standards. According to the Real Bread Campaign, on 1 December Trading Standards confirmed: “Lidl have taken the comments on board and are changing the name of their 'Sourdough Crusty Rye Bloomer' to 'Crusty Wheat & Rye Bloomer'.”

The customer who had first complained about the bread loaf said the issue had been raised when she was “raving” about the loaf to “an old friend” who then “immediately” pointed out that it “was not proper sourdough rye bread.” The customer wrote to Lidl asking for the ingredients and "Is this proper sourdough rye bread?". Lidl responding that the ingredients were 56% wheat flour, water, 12% natural sourdough (rye flour, water), 6% rye flour, yeast, and table salt” and “it is therefore not pure rye bread.”’

Sourdough is usually made using a live 'starter' - a paste formed from flour and water that grows natural yeast and other bacteria - but Lidl's recipe sees yeast added to speed up the process. On social media Real Bread Campaign co-ordinator Chris Young shared news of the result and named Lidl's loaf 'sourfaux'. 

The Real Bread Campaign is also pushing for bakers who sell unwrapped bread to display the loaves' ingredients. The Campaign calls the proposed legislation the Honest Crust Act which would include forcing loaves with added raising agents to be termed 'bloomer with sourdough' or 'sourdough flavour'. 

Mr Young said the Campaign is “thankful” that “Lidl has come up with a more appropriate name for the product but we shouldn’t have to be spending our time on individual cases like this.” He added: “Whichever party forms the next government, we urge them to introduce our proposed Honest Crust Act of improved composition, labelling and marketing standards. In the meantime, we urge all bakeries and retailers to adopt the measures voluntarily, including displaying full ingredients lists of unwrapped products at point of sale, so shoppers can make better-informed buying choices.”

A spokesperson for Lidl said: 'In a recent survey conducted by YouGov, shoppers named Lidl as their number one in-store supermarket bakery. Their love for Lidl's baked goods was reinforced further last month at the Baking Industry Awards, after being crowned Bakery Retailer of the Year. We continuously review and update our bakery range to ensure that we have the best offering for our customers at the lowest possible prices.”