LIDL Bread making flour price hike:

Mehal

Many thanks for all of your interesting replies, I am afraid that the last post by VoucherMan hits the nail on the head, that someone is making a killing on the back of the usual catastrophists using the war in the Ukraine as a get out of jail free card to sting the consumer, and yes the farmer will be the only one not getting his fair share for the value of his crop. However Mnoee offers at least an option to use the plain flour at the cheaper rate creating strong white flour using VWG. When I first ventured into the world of bread making, I used an old recipe that was based on "Bakers Percentrages" and I began by experimenting with many differing brands of strong white bread flour, some extremely expensive and others relatively cheap, truth is I was unable to tell a great deal of difference in the finished loaf, and I did ask other opinions to make sure that I was not taste blind! What I concluded was that the taste was as much to do with the yeast and salt content as the flour itself, and I have passed my proven recipe to countless friends who now bake their own loaves using my method and ingredients, and they all appear to appreciate the taste and texture of the finished product, being unhappy with the content of what is these days used in the creation of bread, I stay with the proven water, flour, yeast and salt formula, the only addition is a good pinch of vitamin "C" powder to the flour. Oh, and I boil the water I use and then cool it to remove any chemical content that may be present. Again many thanks to everyone for their replies, it is always interesting to read your comments.

Krakkkers

"As someone who has been baking my own bread for almost four years"

I think you should go and check it, it may be done.

Nelliegrace

Sainsbury’s stoneground wholemeal has been £1.50 for 1.5Kg for quite a while, though there was none this week. We make a 400g loaf in the bread maker, so it goes a bit further.
They had Allinson's white bread flour 3kg on offer recently at £2.
Aldi has not had bread flour for ages, but had some at £1.15 last week, much dearer than previously, 55p for 1.5kg. I think. 

tobiwankenobe

My issue is I try to buy British. Lidl uses British flour. Aldi, Alinson’s, Sainsbury’s, Carr’s may mill it here but I’ve found nothing on the packets saying it’s British wheat. 

A._Badger

tobiwankenobe said:

My issue is I try to buy British. Lidl uses British flour. Aldi, Alinson’s, Sainsbury’s, Carr’s may mill it here but I’ve found nothing on the packets saying it’s British wheat. 

You have to look at the packaging with Aldi's flour. For a long while their white bread flour was emblazoned with a Union flag then, for a few weeks, it wasn't. This week, it's back again with the flag prominently displayed on the packet with the words 'Grown in Britain'. There are many reasons why this may be - not least that British grown wheat can sometimes lack gluten, which necessitates the addition of imported types to 'strengthen' it. Equally, it may be that Aldi is simply switching from producer to producer to keep prices down (not very effectively, if that is the case, as others have pointed out).

In terms of quality, I'm with Mehal on this. I have tried many different basic white flours and find little difference in taste between them (and I am notoriously fussy). Aldi's is fine but I agree with those other commenters who feel that some people are making a lot of money out of the current situation which allows them to raise their prices with little justification and claim that it's due to 'inflation'.    

MattMattMattUK

Mehal said:

As someone who has been baking my own bread for almost four years, I long ago opted to use the LIDL Belbake brand, for two reasons, first having used all manner of other more expensive brands I could tell no difference in quality or taste of the finsihed loaf, and secondly the cost of LIDL Belbake was far lower that of the other brands, including supermarkets own brands. However having paid on average about 59p per 1.5kg bag of strong white breadmaking flour, a year ago LIDL began to slowly hike the price to a situation where the other day they were selling it at £1.19 per bag, strangely this price hike is not reflected in its plain and self raising flour prices. And I just feel that there is a little bit of exploitation at play here too as they seem to have reduced the amount of white bread making flour that is available in store on the shelves, in three local branches last week none was available. As an aside ASDA and SAINSBURY'S own make strong white bread flour are now both £1.30 per bag!

If Lidl were selling bread flour at 59p for a 1.5kg bag even a year they would have been losing money, at £1.19 they are probably only making a small margin, for most supermarket goods less than 5%. Bread flour always costs more, farmers are paid a higher price for wheat with a higher gluten content, in some cases almost 50% more, that is reflected in the cost of bread flour. You can make bread with normal plain flour, with practice it can come out pretty good, though I tend to find that a mix of bread and plain gives a better texture. 

PLRFD

Does adores anyone know anything about Morrisons bread making flour and the creepy crawlies ?  he doesn’t exactly say but some comments allude to cochineal.

https://youtu.be/0_RpQ94jrIk

MattMattMattUK

PLRFD said:

Does adores anyone know anything about Morrisons bread making flour and the creepy crawlies ?  he doesn’t exactly say but some comments allude to cochineal.

https://youtu.be/0_RpQ94jrIk

It is a load of rubbish, the ingredients are listed, standard YouTube clickbait. 

https://groceries.morrisons.com/products/morrisons-plain-flour-317098011

PLRFD

I’m not so sure as he stated he got a standard response from Morrisons are the ingredients the same for bread flour as per the video ?

PLRFD

Hmmmmm this escaped me.

https://www.iamexpat.de/expat-info/german-expat-news/new-eu-law-allows-crickets-ingredients-supermarket-food%0F

https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1728879/brexit-latest-news-insects-in-EU-food-Chinese-crickets-in-biscuits-food-production