NOVEMBER 2026 BAKERY INSIGHTS - Is Food Security the Next Next Big Movement in Baking? 

BAKERY INSIGHTS

Is Food Security the Next Next Big Movement in Baking? 

November 2026

When I first started working in the bakery industry almost 25 years ago, organic was the new buzzword.

In many ways, nobody really knew what it meant.

The then Prince Charles had established the Duchy estate as an organic farm, and there was a growing interest in organic food, but within our industry the language, processes and principles were still relatively unfamiliar.

People such as Syd Aston and Matt Jones helped educate us. We started to understand what organic really meant, how it affected ingredients, recipes and processes, and why consumers were becoming increasingly interested in where their food came from.

Then came sourdough.

Very quickly, words such as starter, mother dough and long fermentation became part of everyday bakery language. What had once seemed niche became mainstream, and bakers across the industry adapted their recipes, processes and equipment to meet growing consumer demand.

Then came gluten-free.

For a while, it seemed you were either for gluten-free or against it.

At Brook Food, we found ourselves working with some of the largest industrial plant bakeries in the country to develop satellite bakeries dedicated to gluten-free production.

For many of those production teams, it was completely new territory. How do you take your core products and manufacture them without gluten? What happens to the recipe? The process? The equipment? The risk of cross-contamination?

We worked alongside them to develop recipes and production processes that, today, are commonplace on supermarket shelves.

We did the same with smaller independent bakeries, helping them develop gluten-free ranges and understand the processes needed to produce them successfully.

Looking back, these movements have something in common. They were largely driven by nutrition, health, consumer choice and changing expectations around food.

Now, I think we may be standing on the cusp of another significant movement. And this time, the driving force could be something much more fundamental:

Food security. Are we becoming too dependent on the system?

The supply of flour is something most of us in baking have traditionally taken for granted.

Farmers grow wheat. Wheat is milled. Flour arrives at the bakery. We make bread, cakes, pastries and everything else our customers expect. But what happens when that supply chain becomes less certain?

Climate change, changing agricultural practices, global supply chains and geopolitical pressures all have the potential to affect the availability and cost of essential ingredients.

For an industry built around flour, that's something we need to take seriously.

At Brook Food, we're beginning to ask a different question.

Rather than simply asking how we can help bakers become more efficient within the existing system, how can we help create a more resilient one?

That means looking beyond the bakery itself and considering the relationship between bakers, farmers, growers and millers.

Bringing milling back closer to the bakery, and that opens up an interesting possibility.

A baker could work with a local farmer or grower, source locally grown grain, mill it locally and then turn it into food for the local community.

Grown locally. Milled locally. Baked locally. Sold locally.

It's an incredibly simple idea.

And perhaps that's part of its appeal. There's more to this than food security. But there is another reason why I find this movement so interesting.

Nutrition.

We've become accustomed to visiting our local pharmacy or health-food shop and buying supplements to make up for nutrients we may be missing from our modern diets.

Yet whole grains already contain a remarkable range of naturally occurring nutrients.

Traditional stone milling, where the whole grain is retained, gives us an opportunity to think differently about how we produce and consume flour.

Rather than separating the grain into its component parts and then deciding what we need to add back, perhaps there is value in starting with the whole grain itself.

That doesn't mean traditional milling is a cure-all, or that modern milling has no place. It means we should be asking questions about how the way we process our food affects what ultimately reaches the consumer.

So perhaps the next movement in baking isn't simply another consumer trend.

Perhaps it's about resilience.

How do we make our food supply chains more secure?

How do we support farmers and growers?

How do we encourage more local food production?

How do we give smaller bakeries greater control over their raw materials?

And how do we produce food that supports good nutrition at the same time?

These are big questions, and there won't be one simple answer. But the bakery industry has always adapted.

Twenty-five years ago, organic was unfamiliar. Then sourdough became mainstream.

Gluten-free transformed production for thousands of bakeries and gave the consumer choice that respected their needs.

Perhaps the next chapter is about bringing the field, the mill and the bakery closer together.

At Brook Food, we're excited to be part of that conversation,  and to explore how the equipment, knowledge and relationships we have built across the industry can help bakers prepare for what comes next. Because if food security is going to be the next big challenge, perhaps it can also be an opportunity to build something better.

 

Editorial by Ann Wells