Bakery professionals who missed International Bakery’s latest live session exploring consumer perceptions of bread, nutrition and health can now watch the full presentation on demand.
The session, featuring Léa Ribet and Sandrine Cuisenier of Lesaffre, examines how consumers perceive bread from a nutritional and health perspective and compares those views with current scientific evidence.
Entitled Overcoming Preconceptions: Aligning Consumer Perceptions and Scientific Realities on Bread, Nutrition, and Health, the presentation draws on two major pieces of research conducted by Lesaffre: an extensive international consumer survey and a review of scientific literature carried out by the Lesaffre Institute of Science and Technology.
Together, the studies provide insight into how changing attitudes towards health and wellbeing are influencing perceptions of bread, while exploring some of the misconceptions that continue to surround its role within the diet.
What do consumers think about bread?
In 2023, Lesaffre conducted a large-scale international study examining consumer attitudes towards bread across 11 countries.
The research surveyed 1,000 people in each of Algeria, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, Poland, Turkey and the United States. This was complemented by a qualitative research programme involving 22 focus groups, conducted with the support of GfK and BrainValue.
The findings provide an extensive picture of the role bread continues to play within diets around the world, while highlighting some of the concerns and expectations influencing purchasing and consumption decisions.
During the on-demand presentation, Ribet and Cuisenier explore the importance consumers place on bread, the health-related barriers that can affect perceptions of the category and the expectations increasingly shaping bakery product development.
The session also considers how wider trends around nutrition, wellbeing and healthier eating are creating both challenges and opportunities for bakery manufacturers and ingredient suppliers.
What does the science say?
Alongside the consumer research, the Lesaffre Institute of Science and Technology reviewed existing scientific literature to examine whether some of the most common perceptions surrounding bread are supported by evidence.
By bringing the two studies together, the presentation highlights where consumer beliefs and scientific understanding align and where a gap remains between perception and reality.
For bakery manufacturers, the findings offer valuable insight into how the industry can respond to changing expectations while improving communication around bread, nutrition and health.
The presentation also explores the potential for nutrition and health to act as drivers of future growth within the bakery category, particularly as consumers increasingly consider nutritional value alongside taste, quality and convenience.
For those who were unable to join the original live broadcast, the complete session is now available to watch on demand through International Bakery.
