Chorleywood Bread Process

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The Chorleywood Bread Process, or CBP, was developed in 1961 by the Flour Milling and Baking Research Association at Chorleywood and is now used to make 80% of the UK’s bread. ^[1] The process had an important impact in the United Kingdom as it permitted a much greater proportion of home-grown low-protein wheat to be used in the grist^[2] at the cost of reduced nutritional value.^[3]^[4]

1 The process
2 Criticism
3 References
4 External links

[edit] The process

CBP uses low-protein wheats combined with chemical improvers, and uses intense mechanical working of the dough by high-speed mixers. By introducing several minutes of high-energy mixing into the baking process, the fermentation period is substantially reduced, which increases the production speed of each loaf. The CBP method of making bread cannot be reproduced in a normal kitchen because of this requirement.

[edit] Criticism

In the book Not on the Label: What Really Goes Into the Food on Your Plate, Felicity Lawrence observes that the industrial scale of the Chorleywood Bread Process comes at a nutritional cost, requiring larger amounts of salt and yeast than traditional bread recipes.^[3] Andrew Whitley in his book Bread Matters: The State of Modern Bread and a Definitive Guide to Baking Your Own criticises the CBP for the inferior flavour and texture of the bread made in this way.^[4]

There is a small group of campainers, under the name Doh Boy, who critisize the Chorleywood bread process. They wish to raise awareness of the disadvantages of this method.^[5]