Vegan bread in UK supermarkets

Question

Thanks to the answers to this recent question of mine, I can now check many products including some breads but not all; for example, not the bakery in Tesco.

Database of vegan products in the UK

I was reading the labels and signs carefully in the Tesco bakery but the answer was not clear. I could not see any obvious non-vegan ingredient but nor any statement that some products were vegan. One possible explanation is that there was a generic warning of cross-contamination. So, it might be that some items had no non-vegan ingredients deliberately added but some contamination from other products was possible. This is a situation that I would accept.

I have not tried talking to the staff yet (I did not have time on that visit).

Does anyone know the status of bread in UK supermarket bakeries?

Answer 1

I can't name every bread of course but yes, the Tesco bakery usually has a book, you can ask them about allergens etc because there's rarely labels on the fresh bread, as you've probably noticed.

I asked about the Irish wheaten loaf in Tesco about a year ago and it was vegan in terms of ingredients but they warned me there was a chance of contamination. Close enough.

Generally UK breads on the shelf (Tesco own-brand, Warburton, Hovis...) have a similar half a dozen ingredients. If says vegetarian and has a short list of ingredients with no milk, egg or honey in the ingredients I think you're gonna be okay as long as you're not allergic to any of them.

Brioche is a notable exception. Posh bread is the riskiest because they add random things to make it seem premium. Often the cheap or fresh bread is where they keep it simple, fortified wheat flour, water, salt, yeast..

The Burgen brand is my preference, it says vegan on the label but it's not everyone's cup of ...bread.