American consumers always want to have their cake and eat it, too. Only today, that means having their whole grain breads and eating white bread, too.
Suppliers like George Weston Bakers, ConAgra Foods, General Mills and others are seeing welcome gains from commercial breads, rolls, baking flours and mixes with whole grains designed to mimic white bread, thus providing the best of both worlds.
Credit the demise of low-carb diets and a revised set of U.S. Dietary Guidelines calling for raising Americans' whole grain intake from an average of one daily serving to three with having sparked the trend.
Sales of fresh bread with whole grain claims on the packaging jumped 18% in 2005 over 2004 according to ACNielsen, and Food City's sales are showing similar growth rates, said Phillip Worley, the Abingdon, Va.-based chain's director of grocery operations. "Both white-wheat products and whole grain products have continued to grow in sales over the last 22 weeks."
Worley said bakers who are mimicking white bread with wheat breads that have the color, softness and flavor of white bread and the benefits of whole grains have been successful. "The trend toward whole grain bread products and baking mixes should continue to grow as consumers become more aware of the importance of fiber and grains in a healthy diet."
And it is a trend that the category needed. ACNielsen figures for all channels show the dip in commercial, prepackaged bread sales has begun to reverse itself. A 0.8% drop over 52 weeks in April 2004 became a 1.3% gain a year later, and a 1.8% increase (to $12.7 billion) a year after that. And the 3.4% volume decline recorded in April 2004 was just 2.1% two years later.
Consider as well: The Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter reported that an estimated 40% of Americans eat no whole grains at all.
Packaged Facts, publishing division of MarketResearch.com, also has found that whole grains' promise of nutritional value has helped spark the otherwise mature U.S. bread market. According to a report titled "Bread Products in the U.S.," the category's sales rose by 1.1% in 2005, to $13.7 billion. Projections indicate that the domestic bread market should see sales grow to $13.8 billion this year, and $14.1 billion by 2010.
"Virtually every top marketer introduced health-conscious bread in 2005," Packaged Facts noted in its report, with 33 of 80 new products containing whole wheat. Many of those products "mimicked the taste and texture of classic white bread, making them accessible to the widest possible audience, including kids, who were targeted with six new nutrition-focused breads, including extra fiber, omega-3 fatty acids and calcium."
Terms like "no trans fat," "organic" and "whole grain," along with the rollout of upscale artisan breads and new blended flavors, are "hitting home runs with consumers looking to feed their carb cravings with fare that is more upscale and nutritionally sound than everyday white bread," Packaged Facts publisher Don Montuori said.
As Packaged Facts explained in its executive summary, "the low-carb craze has faded and consumers now realize the importance of the inclusion of good carbohydrates in their diet. This is fueling an anti-white bread drive. Standard white bread does not contain the nutrients that are essential for a healthy diet." Whole wheat breads, on the other hand, are deemed healthy because they are made from the entire wheat kernel, including the bran and germ, which are removed to make traditional white flour.
Worley also pointed out that aside from whole grains, 2005 saw some bread companies introduce breads containing omega-3 fatty acids. "This appears to be a niche product like soy," Worley said. "[Consumers] may not yet be fully aware of the heart health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids."
Food City has increased the shelf space given to whole grain bread products to accommodate the new varieties. "We are using displays and increased signage to draw attention," Worley said. "We have cross-promoted with the dairy and jams/jellies categories. We feature a bread each week in our weekly advertising piece."
The category also is doing well at three-store Dorothy Lane Market, Dayton, Ohio. "People are into whole grains," said Tom Winter, director of marketing. "Here at Dorothy Lane Market, we sell a lot of whole grain from our bakery, also."
In the chain's commercial bread aisles, consumers are likewise going more into whole grains, he said. In fact, the stores have added as many as 15 whole grain SKUs in recent months. "The whole grain category is coming out with new varieties; that's what people want," Winter said. "With reports coming out about whole grain and how it's better for you than plain white bread, it has become the fad right now. We're doing very well with that."
Meanwhile, shelves elsewhere are growing more crowded, too:
This spring, General Mills Bakeries & Foodservice introduced a white whole grain bread mix called DuruWhite that it hopes will meet consumers' growing demand for whole grains while appealing to fans of white bread. The product uses whole durum flour, which is usually used for pasta, resulting in a product with a more typical white bread appearance and texture, and as much as 16 grams of whole grain per serving.
Branded breads made with DuruWhite are being sold in bread aisles across the country under the Country Hearth, Schwebel, Sunbeam and Gold Medal brands.
In July 2005, Sara Lee Food & Beverage began marketing its Soft & Smooth Made With Whole Grain White Bread. The product is made with a blend of enriched white flour and a variety of whole grain flour dubbed "whole white-wheat flour," which is touted as softer in texture, lighter in color and milder in taste than traditional whole wheat flour.
The product left the gate quickly: According to Information Resources Inc., the line sold 16.7 million 20-ounce loaves, or $30.2 million worth of bread, through the grocery channel alone between its launch date and Dec. 25.
ConAgra Foods in May rolled out Healthy Choice All-Purpose White Flour With Whole Grains, marketed as combining traditional white flour taste with whole grain nutrition. The product reportedly bakes and tastes like white flour, but has 9 grams per serving of whole grains. The essential ingredient is Ultragrain, available before only to commercial food manufacturers.
The new Healthy Choice flour is made of 30% Ultragrain flour blended with an enriched refined white flour. It went on sale last June for $2.29 per 5-pound bag at select Wal-Mart stores.
George Weston Bakers' Freihofer's and Stroehmann-branded Soft & Tasty products are billed as a good source of whole grain, fiber, vitamin D and folic acid, and an excellent source of calcium.
Wonder Bread, America's leading bread brand, is marketing 100% whole wheat loaves to concerned moms. The line, called White Bread Fans 100% Whole Grain, is made with an albino wheat variety and rolled out last summer and nationally in January, along with Wonder Made With Whole Grain White. Wonder also plans to launch nationally a whole grain wheat bread this month.
In an interview with USA Today, Brian Wansink, director of Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab, called the idea of a whole grain Wonder Bread product "stealth health," and compared it to "whole wheat Lucky Charms. It could succeed in bringing back the disenfranchised customer who left because they just saw white bread as sticky stuff that balls up in your stomach."
New Wonder Made With Whole Grain White Sandwich Buns is the latest addition to the line of whole grain products. It provides 8 grams of whole grains in each serving and is a good source of calcium, vitamin D and folic acid.
In May, Thomasville, Ga.-based Flowers Foods introduced two varieties of its Nature's Own Whitewheat bread: Whitewheat Hamburger Buns and Whitewheat Hot Dog Buns.
While the new whole grain products are popular, it's too soon to tell what impact they'll have on the bread category overall.
"It seems to be a 'one or the other' proposition for customers," said Robert Keane, media relations manager for Ahold's Giant and Stop & Shop, Quincy, Mass. "A customer does not buy an 'extra' loaf of whole grain bread now. Customers are buying about the same amount of bread as before, just a different kind in some cases."
Keane confirmed, however, that sales of whole grain breads have increased "dramatically over the past six months. We see whole grain products growing at least through the end of the year."
Others do, too.
"I expect this category to continue to grow and more new items to be introduced in the future as our consumers grow more informed and health conscious of the added benefits of whole grains and fiber," Worley said.
