Britain Loves Baking Uses its Loaf to Ensure Families Don’t Waste a Crumb and Helps Baking Leverage the Benefits of the Circular Economy
Recent research by WRAP (The Waste and Resources Action Program, a UK Charity) indicated that as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown, UK households are now managing their food much better. They’ve become better at making a shopping list, using creative approaches to cooking such as baking and using up leftovers and better at in-home food management. WRAP estimates that all of these behaviors have led to a 34 percent reduction in food wastage they are now urging businesses and others in the food sector to help people make this the ‘new normal.’
In response to this call by ‘Britain Loves Baking’, the innovative home of family baking, have put together a new baking box the ‘Real Bread Baking Box’ to help avoid prevent food wastage. This baking box includes not only quality bread baking ingredients, a digital timer to assist with proving and baking times to ensure bakers don’t over prove/bake their breads which leads to food waste but also ‘Don’t Waste A Crumb’. This new book contains innovative recipes gathered from the founders and their team of bakers, designed to help families bake bread and turn it into the most amazing dishes by incorporating leftovers so that every crumb is used and nothing goes to waste. The ‘Real Bread Baking Box’, costs £28, includes: the ingredients to make up 16 loaves, a copy of the cookbook a digital timer and delivery to anywhere in Mainland UK and would last a family for two months of fresh bread.
The book was written by founders Greg Wixted and younger brothers Mark and Andy – Australian based chefs and food entrepreneurs, together redrew their business model and founded their grocery & food box and baking box delivery businesses, to try and save the jobs of the people that worked for them when Australia went into lock down and they retailers ceased online trading at the start of the global pandemic to provide food, grocery and baking boxes, The book is co-authored USA baker and student Liz Campbell and London based Libby Bates a rising star baker on social media. All contributing their favourite recipes and insightful baking tips for novice and young bakes.
Wixted commented, “British households have really taken bread baking to their heart during lockdown and homes have once again been filled with the smell of freshly baked bread. Our products are free of all the artificial additives used in commercial baking and home baking products. Plus, people are embracing the benefits of baking whether as a new hobby, to boost their mental health and kill isolation boredom, to educate and entertain their children or as a neighbourly gift, and we want to encourage people to keep baking for all these reasons. So, we thought what better way to combine all the benefits of home bread baking and also support the WRAP food wastage reduction initiative than to offer our customers a recipe book with a twist when they buy our ‘Real Bread Baking Box’. And so ‘Don’t Waste A Crumb’ was conceived offering brand new, simple to follow, ‘chef inspired’ simple and delicious recipes, that use up food that would otherwise go to waste with bread to produce simply and delicious dishes for everyone to enjoy.”
The ethos of ‘Britain Loves Baking’ is very much about sustainability, valuing people and purpose, over profits and shareholders and helping people towards a healthier diet with fresh baked produce. This is also reflected in the contents of the Baking Boxes opting for additive free natural ingredients, dehydrating their own fruit when it’s at the peak of its shelf life for maximum flavour or turning it into jams and preserves. Even the book itself is printed on recycled paper using sustainable ink and is being made by the RBLI British veterans and printed by Britain’s Bravest Manufacturing Company, who have been helped the team to reduce its packaging by 50 percent.
Wixted concluded, “One thing that Lockdown has shown in this difficult time is that as a nation we are enormously resilient and resourceful by being ‘food smart’ and making the most of the food that we buy. This is something that we thoroughly encourage and is one of the reasons that we decided to create this little book. We wanted to help people utilize their bakes and show them how to combine home baked bread with foods that they may have previously thrown away to make tasty dishes. It’s a win-win situation, eat healthily, save money, reduce waste, and we hope that we will be helping everyone to bake the world a better place!”