What’s trending in the UK’s ‘food desert’?
That loaf of bread has sold out again.
This weekend, as usual, I headed to the supermarket to stock up on next week’s “survival rations”. I made my way to the bakery aisle looking for Jason’s Sourdough, only to find the shelves completely bare, save for a white “Out of Stock” label. In just a few months, this has been my third time coming up empty-handed.
At £2 a loaf (around 19 yuan), this sliced bread has long been a kitchen staple for me. What’s suddenly sparked this craze?
A quick search on my phone revealed it has become a proper viral sensation. Social media is awash with praise: some are posting videos of empty supermarket shelves, others claim finding a single loaf is like “winning the lottery”. One even quipped: “If you want to bag Jason’s sourdough, you might as well treat it as a full-time job.”
In 2024, premium olive oil, vinegar, sea salt, and this sourdough loaf emerged as highly sought-after staples in UK supermarkets. According to major chain Waitrose’s annual Food & Drink Report, demand for apple cider vinegar rose by 6% last year, while sales of flake sea salt produced in Cornwall surged by 79%.
Demand for high-quality extra virgin olive oil also grew by 15%. Despite prices soaring due to a sharp drop in 2024 yields, consumers continued to snap up extra virgin varieties.
After years of tightening their belts during the pandemic, shoppers seem willing to spend more on food, shifting a greater share of their budget towards affordable pantry staples like bread, oils, and condiments.
Behind this trend, people are pursuing more than just the ingredients themselves. Repeatedly echoing across social media and news coverage is a single term that points to the collective anxiety driving this shift in consumer behaviour: ultra-processed foods (UPFs).
I. The Anti-Ultra-Processed Food Movement
As industrial food products have become commonplace, it has become apparent that many health issues are not closely tied to nutritional content alone; rather, the processing methods themselves are what lead to a loss of control over eating behaviours.
In 2009, Brazilian nutritionist Carlos Monteiro first introduced the NOVA food classification system, which categorises foods into four groups based on their level of processing, with the final category comprising ultra-processed foods (UPFs).
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs)—complex formulations subjected to extensive industrial processing—often contain industrial additives such as emulsifiers, flavour enhancers, and artificial flavourings. While they offer long shelf lives and convenience, they bear little resemblance to whole, unprocessed ingredients.
Since the 2010s, a growing body of research has pointed to a clear association between high UPF intake and conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, noting that these foods may overstimulate appetite and place a heavier burden on metabolism.
In recent years, UPFs have moved into the realm of public policy and international discourse. In 2014, the Brazilian government updated its dietary guidelines to explicitly recommend reducing UPF intake. Since then, countries including France, Canada, and Belgium have incorporated restrictions on ultra-processed foods into their national health policies.
In the post-pandemic era, with public health consciousness higher than ever, the concept of ultra-processed foods has regularly featured in media coverage, books, short-form videos, and consumer reviews. Across the UK, a growing number of shoppers are scrutinising food labels, sparking a grassroots movement against ultra-processed foods.
Jason’s sourdough has certainly ridden this wave to prominence. The brand’s sales director has emphasised: “We add no emulsifiers, additives, or preservatives. This is the bedrock of the brand.”
II. Eating clean, or eating with distinction?
Waitrose’s annual survey further reveals that 55% of consumers prefer cooking at home, with 46% stating they cook daily. A notable number have also experimented with homemade bread baking and vegetable pickling over the past year.
According to Q2 2025 data released by food giant Campbell’s, the proportion of consumers cooking at home has reached its highest level since the pandemic, with spending on food and drink rising across all income brackets.
The cooking habits cultivated during the pandemic show no signs of fading; instead, they have only grown more entrenched. This shift has sparked demand for high-quality staple ingredients, indirectly fuelling the surge in popularity of olive oil and sea salt. Consumers are increasingly willing to pay for foundational ingredients rather than ready-made sauces or snacks with lengthy ingredient lists.
This shift in interest extends beyond the palate, quietly permeating the realms of aesthetics and personal identity.
For instance, nearly every major UK supermarket chain stocks its own-brand extra virgin olive oil, typically priced at around £5 for 500ml (approximately ¥48). Yet, last year’s standout product was a Citizens of Soil olive oil commanding a price three times higher.
The brand champions regenerative agriculture and female producers, but what truly sets it apart is its bottle design, reminiscent of fine wine, alongside innovative bag-in-bottle refills that allow the container to be reused. Elegant, eco-friendly, and highly photogenic, it seems to capture every consumer’s ideal of ‘fine olive oil’ while offering a fresh way to display one’s taste.
According to Home and Garden magazine, a stylishly designed bottle of olive oil is now gradually replacing red wine as the go-to gift for house visits. A similar trend is emerging around tins of sardines.
While supermarket own-brand tins retail for just over £1, the fashionably packaged yellow Ortiz tins, priced at around £6, remain a firm favourite.
The push for refinement seems to have spread to every corner of the kitchen. From canned fish to canned beans, from vinegar to salt, staple ingredients once relegated to the back of cupboards as mere background items are undergoing a striking transformation: they are prettier, packed with a richer story, and undoubtedly pricier.
Social media and algorithmic feeds have played a decisive role.
According to Waitrose’s annual report, those aged 18 to 34 have long since stopped relying on traditional recipes, preferring instead to search #whatshfordinner on social platforms. Short videos and image-heavy posts are actively reshaping the benchmarks for what people feel they ought to be eating.
Under trending tags such as #eatingclean, which promote cutting out ultra-processed foods, countless food and lifestyle creators offer their take on the answer, showcasing remarkably similar ingredients and beautifully arranged pantry jars.
III. The movement against ultra-processed foods must also prompt reflection on the food industry itself
For the vast majority, ultra-processed foods remain the cheapest and most accessible everyday staples. According to the latest figures from the British Food Foundation, healthy food costs more than double per thousand calories compared to unhealthy options.
The UK government’s recommended weekly budget for a healthy diet amounts to roughly £9 per person per day (approximately ¥87). For households on the lowest incomes, this would consume between 45% and 70% of their disposable income. Consequently, in reality, low-income households spend only around £4 per person daily (roughly ¥38) on food, which is less than half of the official recommendation.
Furthermore, the anti-ultra-processed food movement began as a critique of the modern food industry: rejecting the proliferation of additives, calling for a return to food in its truest form, and ultimately aiming to make eating healthier, simpler, and more equitable.Yet, amid rapid commercialisation, this de-industrialisation initiative has instead entrenched a more covert, refined industrial structure.
Take sourdough, for example. An increasing number of brands emphasise natural starters and additive-free recipes, which genuinely sets them apart from the “fake sourdough” lining supermarket shelves. Nevertheless, they still depend on automated machinery and standardised processes. Wrapped in careful packaging and marketing, they may appear almost indistinguishable from artisanal baking, but in truth, they are simply striking a balance between industrial efficiency and brand narrative.
Moreover, there is no universally accepted labelling system or standard for ultra-processed foods, and interpretations of the NOVA classification vary across different groups.
For instance, Jason’s “Whole Wheat Ciabatta” and “Tiger Swirl Rolls” have sparked debate among consumers after being categorised as “ultra-processed” by the open database Open Food Facts.
In the absence of a universal standard, some brands have swiftly capitalised on consumer expectations for “clean” and “low-additive” products, tightly coupling the “clean and healthy” label with limited-origin ingredients, premium techniques, and sustainable packaging. In doing so, foods that once merely met basic nutritional needs have been transformed into higher-priced, aesthetically packaged lifestyle commodities that signal status.
Fuelled by the influencer economy, consumer choices remain concentrated on a handful of “viral” products. Far from distancing itself from the industrial system, this trend actually reinforces a new hierarchy of food consumption, albeit through a more culturally capitalised lens.
It is, moreover, a systemic issue touching on the food industry, social equity and cultural imagination—one that calls on us to learn how to identify ingredients, understand nutrition, and critically reflect on our consumption.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/ultra-processed-foods
https://www.johnlewispartnership.media/news/johnlewis/28112024/waitrose-food-drink-report-2024
https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/broken-plate-2025
https://uk.openfoodfacts.org/cgi/search.pl?search_terms=Jason%27s&search_simple=1&action=process
Editor: Ze En