How scientists are bringing fibre back to the bakery aisle

White bread has been a sandwich staple since 19th century advances in milling technology made the efficient mass production of refined flour possible. Loved by retailers and consumers alike for its palatable texture, low cost, long shelf life and ‘modern’ connotations, white flour quickly became ubiquitous in breads, cakes, biscuits and other baked goods.

Today, although wholegrain and sourdough breads are growing in popularity, the majority of bread bought in the UK is still made with low-fibre white flour. The normalisation of white flour flies in the face of an ever-growing body of evidence that has recently prompted public health authorities to recommend high-fibre diets for the prevention of diabetes, obesity and several chronic inflammatory diseases. 

This has left food manufacturers grappling with a challenge: how can they provide consumers and retailers with the highly palatable and profitable bakery products they’ve become used to, while also delivering the nutritional benefits of fibre that could help prevent a public health crisis?

In pursuit of a solution, many manufacturers have begun collaborating with research scientists. The goal? To explore how genome sequencing and advanced reformulation processes can bring fibre back to the bakery aisle.

Balancing health benefits with consumer appeal

To make white flour, wheat grains are ground to separate the endosperm (the starchy part) from the bran (outer layer) and germ (the embryo of the wheat kernel). During this process, the majority of the fibre is stripped out of the product; this is one reason why white bread is typically very soft.

The removal of fibre from food products in this way is problematic from a health perspective for several reasons. Firstly, refined low-fibre foods are ‘hyper palatable’, meaning that they are easy to over-consume. Secondly, they are quickly broken down into glucose in the stomach and absorbed into the bloodstream - resulting in blood sugar spikes and interfering with the body’s insulin sensitivity. Thirdly, consuming a diverse range of fibre types is the cornerstone of good gut health, and thus also a cornerstone of physical and mental health^[1].

Fibre’s bulk helps move the food through the digestive system, preventing bloating, diarrhoea and constipation. It’s also the preferred fuel for our gut microbiome - the billions of good bacteria that live in our gut. When properly fuelled with multiple different types of fibre, this microbiome produces lots of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs). These essential molecules play a role in everything from improving mental health to balancing hormones, reducing inflammation and even preventing several types of cancer.

Campaign for wholegrain

In a recent paper published in the British Journal of Nutrition, scientists from Tate & Lyle reported that reformulating everyday foods with added fibre could reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes for 72% of the adult population. Reformulation could also support up to 6% of the UK population to lose weight through higher fibre consumption, and could double the number of children in the UK meeting their fibre intake recommendations.

In 2021, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) launched the Action on Fibre initiative to help bridge the gap between intakes and the dietary recommendation. Brands, including bakery giant Kingsmill, pledged to take action to increase the fibre content of their products.

However, simply increasing the bran and germ in the flour will inevitably lead to changes in the taste, texture and appearance of the baked good. This is far from ideal for the manufacturers, who risk upsetting loyal customers with every noticeable product alteration.   Luckily for everyone, recent advances in scientists’ understanding of how the body digests fibre have opened the door to a more sophisticated reformulation method.

In the labs of research institutes and major food manufacturers, scientists have been applying a technique called ‘shotgun metagenomics sequencing’, in conjunction with lab culturing methods, to study the microorganisms involved in fermenting fibre in the gut. They have discovered that different types of fibres are fermented in vastly different ways between individuals in the gut, depending on the composition of their microbiome.

This information has enabled scientists to create 'average' blends of dietary fibre, such as the myota range, that will have benefits that are generalisable across different individuals and their unique microbiomes. These blends, many of which are gluten-free, have been precision-engineered to optimise SCFA production in the microbiome. They can be mixed into refined flour to boost its fibre content, making it possible to reformulate bakery foods for an improved nutrition profile without changing their taste, texture or appearance. 

The best thing since sliced bread?

These R&D advances are on track to play a pivotal role in manufacturers’ efforts to make healthier baked goods with mass-market appeal. And it’s not only baked goods that could have their fibre content boosted with these precision blends – it’s likely that we’ll see ready meals, tinned soups, bottled smoothies and energy bars fortified with fibre over the coming years.

By supporting manufacturers to reformulate in favour of high fibre, public health authorities could make huge strides to reducing rates of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and chronic inflammatory diseases on a national scale.