By Anne Bruce2021-02-01T10:10:00+00:00
Getting a crystal ball out to imagine how the world of bakery might change over the next few decades feels like a welcome form of escapism from the chaos of 2020 and the start of 2021.
What will a plant bakery look like in 2030 or 2050? How will processes have changed? Will the end products be recognisable to consumers of today? And what about the bakers? Will artificial intelligence (AI) have taken over?
These are all questions Tony Hunter, a global futurist specialising in food, has weighed up. He is not alone in concluding that humans will be rare sightings in the industrial bakery of the future.
Roberts Bakery has launched a monthly subscription service with a host of ‘healthy’ snacks.
Subscribers can choose from three different sizes of snack box: Starter Snacker with eight snacks, Classic Snacker with 16, and Pro Snacker with 24. Roberts is also offering new products to try for between £12 and £29 a month.
The Cheshire-based bakery, which is offering new additions from its snacking range, has partnered with national delivery service DPD to provide free next-day delivery, direct to consumers’ doors.
The line-up features:
Raspberry & Chia Pangel, comprising a fusion of soft pancake and bagel.
Chocolate Orange Brookie, made up of Brazilian orange oil, soft brioche bun and a swirl of cookie.
Alison Ordonez is on a mission to “help make the baking industry look more modern”.
If anyone can do it, it should be her. At Roberts Bakery she has been behind many eye-catching innovations, most recently the launch of a breakfast-inspired snacking range including a pangel, a cross between a pancake and a bagel.
Keeping your finger on the pulse and “horizon scanning” is a serious business for Ordonez, to ensure the company, the UK’s fifth largest plant bakery, leads its competitors.
“Innovation is not just about a larger sized item or different percentage of ingredients; we want the whole sector to look again,” she says.