Wholegrain bread is a rising trend

Gunnar Thor Ragnarsson is New Product Development Manager at Lantmännen Unibake Norway. He explains that Norway is one of Europe’s first movers when it comes to supporting a Health & Nutrition agenda. For example, the health authorities in Norway have launched salt reduction programs to improve public health. They are also making it easy for consumers to choose healthier products.

“One of the health authorities in Norway has come up with something they call “Brødskalaen” – the Bread Scale. Brødskalaen is a label on the packaging that determines how much of a bread product is wholegrains, whole meal, and brans. Brødskalaen is divided into four categories symbolized by a visual quarter in a pie chart: one quarter means 0-25%, two quarters means 25-50%, three quarters means 50-75%, and four quarters means 75-100%,” says Gunnar Thor Ragnarsson. “Norwegians have always been good at eating bread with lots of wholegrains. We have many products on the market that contain 50-75% wholegrains. The interesting thing is that we can already see a rise in products with 75-100% wholegrains.”

Soft gourmet buns a massive success

Recently, Lantmännen Unibake Norway launched “Gourmet Grov hamburgerbrød” under the very popular Hatting brand. The buns are soft gourmet burger buns sold in the supermarket REMA 1000 in Norway. They are baked with fermented wheat and topped with black and white sesame that make them look like something out of a café or restaurant. With its 59% wholegrains, Gourmet Grov hamburgerbrød is labeled with three quarters in Brødskalaen’s pie chart. On top of that the product also displays the Scandinavian Keyhole mark. Products with less and healthier fat, less sugar, less salt and more dietary fibre and wholegrain than comparative products can boast the Keyhole symbol on the packaging. The salt level in Gourmet Grov hamburgerbrød is, for example, 0,7% which is low for the category.

“We launched the buns in the beginning of 2024, and they have performed very well on supermarket shelfs. Sales are good, and consumers are giving them good reviews. They simply taste and look like a premium burger bun,” Gunnar Thor Ragnarsson says.

Silent launches

Synchronous with the launch of the soft gourmet buns, Lantmännen Unibake has also launched Hatting standard hotdog rolls with 10% more wholegrains compared to the previous version of the product. It has been a so-called silent launch which means that REMA 1000 has not actively claimed the improved nutritional values of the product. Sometimes, they believe that it is better to make the improvements without communicating the changes explicitly. Even though most people cannot tell the difference in a direct comparison, some consumers might wrongfully think that more wholegrains equal products with a different mouthfeel and worse tasting experience. That is not the case. The new hotdog rolls have also been a success, and more bakery products with added wholegrain values are in REMA 1000’s pipeline for the coming years.

Healthier buns, sandwich, and toast

A similar wholegrain story has been the case for REMA 1000 in Denmark. Here, REMA 1000 has executed three silent launches of REMA 1000’s private-labeled soft buns, wheat sandwich, and wheat toast with more wholegrains and fibre. The amount of fibre has gone up from 3% to 3,7%, and the amount of wholegrain has gone up from 5% to 7% in all three products.

Together with, among others, Lantmännen Schulstad, Lantmännen Unibake Denmark, and Lantmännen Cerealia, REMA 1000 is a partner in the Danish Wholegrain Society. That means that REMA 1000 has committed to sell more Keyhole and wholegrain labeled products but also to increase the level of wholegrain in non-labeled products.

To not change the taste and the texture of the products, the content of regular wheat flour has been reduced and replaced with more wholegrain flour. But instead of using normal red wheat, white wheat has been used as it is less bitter and does not impact taste.

Consumers want healthier bread

Adding more wholegrain in bakery products is not just something, Lantmännen Unibake is concerned with. Consumers are also showing a high interest in Health & Nutrition as a topic.

In November 2022, Lantmännen Unibake launched a Consumer Tracker across nine key markets to gather consumer insights on Health & Nutrition. The questions focused on the overall importance for consumption; awareness of the health benefits of fibre, salt, and wholegrains; triggers and barriers for choosing wholegrain products etc.

Overall, consumers are highly concerned with the health impact of their daily diets. Some of the key takeaways from the survey were:

• 44-63% of consumers know that eating wholegrains has a preventive effect on several noncommunicable diseases*
• 85% of consumers claim to eat wholegrains at least weekly, and 57% say they eat more now than 1-2 years ago. Only 10% claim to eat less wholegrains
• Bread is by far the most important source of wholegrains in consumers’ diets
• 64% of consumers claim to choose wholegrain bread always or very often. Only 8% claim to rarely or never choose wholegrain bread
• The key reason for choosing wholegrains is the Health & Nutrition benefits (57%). But 46% of consumers also prefer the taste of wholegrain products
• Only 29% state taste as a primary barrier for wholegrain consumption. Price (37%), availability (19%) and habits (17%) are the other key barriers

* Obesity, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer.