A Halifax based secondary school has used its loaf to encourage students to eat healthier bread. Hipperholme & Lightcliffe High School called in Elland-based Thomas’s Bakery, a family run craft bakery with more than 100 years heritage, to develop a healthier, high fibre bread that its students would love. The result is a bread bap that looks and eats like white bread, but has all the goodness of brown, thanks to an ingredient that helps to boost the fibre content of food ““ the Scilia pure and natural plant fibre.
When head cook, Matthew Anderson joined the school, he used his skills as a former commercial chef working in Michelin star establishments, to bring a new approach to school meals. Matthew overhauled the entire menu and introduced freshly prepared meals using locally sourced ingredients with real provenance and only works with local producers and suppliers. His challenge was to encourage students to eat his new healthy chicken fillet burger with a brown bap, but he had no takers!
The school boasts a Healthy School National award and strives to continuously review and improve on healthy eating for its students to aid learning. Matthew was so passionate about his mission to offer a healthier brown bread, he invited master bakers from Thomas’s Bakery to rise to the challenge and come up with a solution. Thomas’s Bakery only works with the highest quality ingredients for its products and consulted with leading clean label ingredients specialists, Ulrick & Short, to support its development of a high fibre bread.
Complex processing techniques adopted by Ulrick & Short allow its Scilia fibres to deliver an impressive 97 per cent fibre content and are pure, neutral in taste and allergen and calorie free. The company extended its range of Scilia fibres to include wheat and flax, which are ideal for incorporating into breads.
The new high fibre baps have been trialled on the school menu and are a 100 per cent success. Students haven’t raised an eyebrow that they are getting the goodness and nutrition of a brown bap cunningly disguised as white bread.
Matthew Anderson, head chef commented: “We are absolutely delighted with the new high fibre bread baps developed by Thomas’s Bakery. The students haven’t noticed the difference in our trials and are thoroughly enjoying the new chicken fillet burger in a “white” bap. We are now set to roll the baps out across the menu. Thomas’s Bakery has worked diligently and professionally in finding a solution to our bap dilemma and the Scilia fibres also help the bread to remain softer for longer, meaning less wastage for the school. We think this is a brilliant bap and a great product for schools to promote healthier eating.”
Charlotte Shaw, director, Thomas’s Bakery commented “We are pleased that the school approached us to develop a new wholesome bap for its students. We are wholesale suppliers of fresh, high quality bread, teacakes and confectionery and our skilled bakers work throughout the night to produce the freshest products for customers daily. We are keen to forge stronger relationships with our customer base, so it was great to work closely with the school on this exciting new product development ““ a first for the school sector.”