Five tips for reducing bakery surplus and waste

Waste and excess products are always a drain on production. In bakery business the problem of wastes and surplus is very prevalent, whether in Nigeria, UK or elsewhere. In this article, the British Baker has published tips on how to tackle this common problem. Read on the link.
https://bakeryinfo.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/19027/Five_tips_for_reducing_bakery_surplus_and_waste.html

Iceland set to axe plastic bakery packaging

In an indication of how packaging of foods (baked products especially), would change in the near future, a British frozen foods specialist and supermarket chain Iceland, has concluded plans to axe plastic bakery packaging materials; nylons and others, by 2023. This bold step is in line with the plan by the British government to tackle plastic waste in the near future. It is apparent this is going to be a trend in the not too distant future. Read the story on the link. 
https://bakeryinfo.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/19024/Iceland_set_to_axe_plastic_bakery_packaging.html

Breakthrough' Breast Cancer Drug Thwarted by Chemical Found in Bread

Oh dear! Our almighty bread is fighting a lot of battles. If it's not link between bread (or wheat products generally) to Celiac disease, it is gluten-intolerance; prompting the need to avoid bread. Now, a new research suggests that a chemical found in bread prevents a breakthrough drug used in curing cancer from working. How would some of these drawbacks affect our industry? Read more on the link.
www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/01/11/breakthrough-breast-cancer-drug-thwarted-chemical-found-bread/

White Bread Just as Healthy as Brown Bread for Some People, Study Finds

A lot of health-conscious consumers have switched from white to brown bread; a lot more would want to switch too, in the hope that brown bread is a healthier and more beneficial bread. For this reason, a handful of bakers have included brown bread in their offering, many more are considering doing so, at any cost.
However, a recent research reveals that there may be little difference in how white and brown bread affect the body. Read more on the link.
www.independent.co.uk/news/health/white-bread-more-healthy-brown-people-study-cell-metabolism-sourdough-weizmann-institute-of-science-a7776666.html

French President Macron, Wants UN Recognition for French Bread - Baguette

The French people always pride themselves with baguette - their national bread. Now the French President Mr. Macron wants the United Nation to recognize it as a cultural heritage for humanity. What do you think? Do we have a national bread in Nigeria? Would there ever be a time a Nigerian national bread would gain global recognition? Think about it, and let me know your thoughts.
https://www.politico.eu/article/macron-un-baguette-a-load-of-this-wants-recognition-for-french-bread/

Dangote Retains Position as Africa's Richest Man

Africa's richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has retained his position as Africa's richest man for the seventh year in a row; this is according to Forbe's rich list just published. Dangote's wealth increased by one hundred million dollars.
https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/01/12/buoyed-by-rising-stocks-commodity-prices-dangotes-fortune-rises-to-12-2bn/

Flour Mills of Nigeria Shops for 39.86 Billion Naira

Foremost flour producer in Nigeria, Flour Mills of Nigeria plans to raise about 39.86 billion Naira (130 million dollars) through share sales to existing shareholders. The share sales is expected to commence on January 15. Read the story.
https://dailynigerian.com/news/flour-mills-nigeria-starts-130m-share-sale-january-15/amp/

Death Toll in Sudan Bread Protest Rises to Three

The number of people killed in the Sudan bread protests has risen to three. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/sudan-protests-dead-bread-protests-180112095320512.html

Meanwhile, Sudan's main clerical body, the Sudan Scholar Corporation (SSC) has thrown its weight behind the protests. SSC called on the Sudanese government to grant the absolute right to protest peacefully against its recent decision to increase bread prices. For nearly a week, Sudanese have been protesting against unjust increase in bread prices.
http://sudantribune.com/spip.php?article64476

Entries Commence for Britain's Best Loaf Yearly Competition

Entry for the 2018 Britain’s Best Loaf competition has commenced.  Sponsored by Rank Hovis, the competition is a yearly event carried out to identify Britain's top baker for the year. This year's competition takes place at the Farm Shop & Deli Show at the NEC in Birmingham on 16 April.

Read more about this on the link, and also find out whether you can enter for the contest. What would be more lovely than having a Nigerian baker winning Britain's Best Loaf title? And on a more serious note, can we  organize something like this in Nigeria?

https://bakeryinfo.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/19012/Could_you_be_the_baker_of_Britain_92s_Best_Loaf_.html

Clean-Label Sweetners for Snacks and Baked Goods

Fellow Bakers, how much do you know about sugar replacers and sweeteners generally? Please read up here for  some useful insight.
 https://www.preparedfoods.com/articles/120672-clean-label-sweeteners-for-snacks-baked-goods

NIGERIAN INSTITUTE OF BAKING - (Long Time Overdue)

NIGERIAN INSTITUTE OF BAKING - (Long Time Overdue)

From unofficial data, the Nigerian baked goods industry employs over half a million people, both directly and indirectly. Directly, the industry employs bakers, careers, adjunct staff or those who function in non technical roles either in bakeries, biscuit companies, baked sausages companies, catering shops and so on. Indirectly, the industry supports and puts thousands in jobs in the flour milling industry, manufacturers of wrapper,  ingredient producers, bakery equipment fabricators and trade dealers. The baked goods industry alone consumes about 70% of wheat flour produced in Nigeria.
According to a research report published by KPMG, the Nigerian Biscuit Segment was valued at US$617 million, in 2015, while the Nigerian Bread Segment was valued at US$612 million, and growing at 3% continuously till 2019. In other words, the two segments combined (cake, pastry and sausage are not included) are valued at over a billion US dollars. These figures are huge, considering the size of the Nigerian economy. Bearing this in mind, the Nigerian Baked Goods industry is important and strategic to the economy of Nigeria, and the government ought to support it in every way. One of the best ways to support such an industry is usually through research, training and certification of  professionals, and manpower development within such industry. In advanced climes, this is what happens, and the reason countries establish national institutes in fields strategic to national security. If we want to move forward or improve the baked goods industry in Nigeria, this is what ought to be done. A national institute for baking is long time overdue in Nigeria.
We at  "Naija Bakers'  Corner" believe  this strongly, and are willing to take up this cause. To actualize this dream, over the year we are going to initiate a citizens' or grassroots' bill and get it through to the Nigerian National Assembly, through any elected members. Among other things, we are calling for the establishment of a National Bakers' Institute, through an act of parliament, empowered with the functions to;
1.Train Bakers
2. Issue Certification to bakers.
3. Conduct research and other studies related to baking in Nigeria.
4. Develop Content and curriculum for bakers' training
We are aware that some of these functions are carried out sometimes by FIRO and IITA, but there are a lot of loopholes, these efforts are not fully dedicated to the baking industry. Therefore we require a separate body. At "Naija Bakers' Corner", we are going to take a dive at this project, we would give it all we have, and if need be, we would mobilize signatures from fellow bakers. Please support us, when the time comes!

Watch How the People of Iceland Bake Bread in the Ground

The tiny nation of Iceland is unique in many ways. She generates more than 90% of her electricity from renewable sources. Also the island nation writes more books per capita than any other country in the world. But there is something else, Icelanders have found a unique way to bake bread and cake in the ground using geothermal heat - in other words, they use the ground as oven to bake.

https://www.treehugger.com/green-food/how-they-bake-volcano-bread-underground-iceland.html

Waste Bread Finds New Use in Beer in Britain

Bread is a highly perishable product. Under perfect handling and storage condition, a bread product would last only about one week (that is the longest duration in which it would retain its optimal characteristics to be regarded as safe). The moment bread or any baked products leave the oven, it automatically begins a rapid journey into degradation or spoilage.
Unlike some other food products like wine, beer and processed meat; bread does not mature in time. Comparably, bread is like vegetable, and like the later, it cannot be stocked or warehoused.
The high perishable nature of bread is a very big headache to bakers; once its out from the oven the product must be sold off or the baker risks wasting or losing all his effort. Creatively,  there are several ways bakers try to overcome this problem, including recycling or use of the wasted bread as rusk; but this has a huge draw back, especially when the waste is huge.  The fall out from this challenge is that bakers lose handsome money to wasted bread. However, in an innovative approach, some Brits have developed a novel way to solve the problem by using wasted bread to produce craft beer.  Find the story here;

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/12/food-waste-fight-brits-turn-bread-beer/

Want to get a job? Take up baking

Home economics skills are now more valued than work experience, according to research carried by baking decoration specialist Cake Angels.
https://bakeryinfo.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/17987/Want_to_get_a_job__Take_up_baking.html

Student killed, opposition leader detained as bread protests grip Sudan

Around the globe, bread is a major staple for most countries; hence a means of livelihood is termed  daily bread. Anything that has to do with bread, whether price change, scarcity or whatsoever raises emotion. The North African country Sudan is today in the grip of a major protest as her citizens protest against rising bread price. Find out more.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sudan-protests/student-killed-opposition-leader-detained-as-bread-protests-grip-sudan-idUSKBN1EW0R6

Bread And Other Foods We Shouldn't Keep in the Refrigerator, Find Out Why.

The fridge comes handy for preservation and storage of virtually every kind of food; milk, drinks, fruits and vegetables. But while it has proved efficient in preservation of various foods, the reactions and changes that go on in foods under storage in the refrigerator are not well understood. For the simple reasons like change in flavour, texture, colour, appeal and nutritional value, certain foods should not be kept in the fridge. And among them is bread.
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/the-foods-you-shouldn-t-keep-in-the-fridge-a6891371.html

The World's Oldest Bakery, Which Bakery Holds the Record?

According to estimates, there are about half a million bakeries or more on the globe, (Nigeria alone has about 10,000 documented bakeries). Among these are bakeries as old as only yesterday, and some with history and heritage. In style, our team at 'Naija Bakers' Corner' conducted a research to find out.
Although it's not stated outright, the following bakeries are about the oldest bakeries in the world;

1. Hofpfisterei - Founded in the year 1331, with headquarters in Munich, Germany, Hofpfisterei is a German bakery chain. It has about 163 branches and employs about 950 people. Its products are also sold online to countries like Austria, France, Sweden and Switzerland. It's included in the elite league of companies that are over two hundred years old still functioning.

2. Haeberlein Bakery - Also a German bakery, founded in 1492.

3. Edegger-Tax - This is the oldest bakery in Austria still functioning. It was founded in 1569.

4. Metzger Bakery - Another German bakery, founded in 1586.

While we have concentrated on companies that are traditionally in bread making, there are companies like 'Ichinomiya Wasuke' , a Japanese confectionery maker established in the year 1000. We consider it more of a confectionery maker, and therefore did not include it.
From our research, Jack Bakery,  in Plymouth, is the oldest bakery in the UK. It was founded in 1596.
Coming down home, we tried to find out the oldest bakery in Nigeria as well. From available data, we could not find any bakeries above two hundred or one hundred years old still functioning in any part of Nigeria. Therefore, we narrowed down our search to bakeries above fifty years. We were able to find a bakery in Ikorodu, Independence Bakery. The bakery was founded before independence in 1960, Originally, it was named Haruna Bakery before the name was changed.
While we rank it as one of the oldest bakeries in Nigeria, we are still continuing our research to find out whether it is the oldest bakery in Nigeria or whether there are other bakeries older. We hope to give you update once we conclude our research.

The World's Oldest Baking School

Today we go to the 'oldies'.
Like in many other professions, the baking industry has always relied on informal training, apprenticeship or direct learning from the master to train new bakers. Whereas the baking profession has existed for hundreds or thousands of years, formal training in the profession in the way of a baking school only dates back to a few centuries ago. According to historical data, the oldest baking school in the world is 'The National Bakery School' in London, United Kingdom. The baking school was established in 1894.
 http://britishsocietyofbaking.org.uk/the-national-bakery-school-a-brief-history-of-the-oldest-bakery-school-in-the-world/

Kenya Considers Extending Ban on Use of Nylon for Packaging to Bread

Following its success in the ban of use of non-biodegradable materials (nylons) for secondary packaging, the National Environmental Management Authority of Kenya (NEMA) is pressing ahead with banning of the use of nylon wrappers for bread and has issued a six-month ultimatum to bakers in the East African country to comply or be forced out of business. Originally, NEMA excluded bread, meat and most highly perishable products from the ban when it commenced in August 2017. The ban was mainly on secondary packaging. But now the environmental body is emboldened by the success of similar ban in Rwanda. In 2008 Rwanda took a very tough stance on nylons and implemented a total ban on the use of nylons in packaging. To remain in business bakers in Rwanda resorted to the use of waxed paper and other alternatives to wrap bread. Considering the success in Rwanda, Kenya NEMA is expected not to waver in this regard. For years Kenya has battled with environmental pollution from littering and poor refuse management that has been adverse to its tourism industry.
Being a highly littered society, would Nigeria follow similar route with the East Africans? And how would Nigerian bakers cope? We at Naija Bakers' Corner ask.

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001262380/nema-extends-ban-to-bread-manufacturers-issues-six-months-grace-period

Electricity Supply Worsens as Transmission Grid Collapses

Millions of Nigerians especially in the South West are now in darkness, following a major setback in the transmission infrastructure. The grid suffered system collapse around 10pm on January 2. This is coming in the midst of the crippling fuel crisis.
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/01/power-supply-worsen-tcn-nnpc-record-system-collapse-pipeline-shutdown/?relatedposts_hit=1&relatedposts_origin=919446&relatedposts_position=0

Former Bread Seller, Olajumoke Shares New Year Kindness

Former bread seller and our own Olajumoke Orisaguna, went back to her roots during the New Year to show kindness. Catch the full gist here:

.https://www.informationng.com/2018/01/former-bread-seller-olajumoke-orisaguna-goes-back-root-give-back-new-year.html