1885

• British Baker is born, then titled The Northern Miller and Baker

• Joseph Rank opens his first totally roller mill, the Alexandra Mill, in Hull. This allows the miller to produce a whiter flour

• British farmers produce an average harvest of 0.95 tonnes of grain per acre (2.36 per hectare)

1887

• The National Association of Master Bakers is formed

1889

• The British firm of Joseph Baker and Sons show an early model for plant production of bread at a Paris food exhibition

• England’s first margarine factory is built

1891

• The Scottish Association of Master Bakers is formed

1894

• The National Bakery School on London’s south bank is established – now the oldest bakery school in the world

• The first dough divider patent is accepted

1897

• Following name changes The Northern Miller and Baker becomes The British Miller and Baker, then the British Baker, Confectioner and Purveyor, before finally settling on The British Baker

1899

• Morrisons is founded by egg and butter merchant William Morrison from a stall in a Bradford market

1901

• The Manufacturing Confectioners Alliance is formed, known as the Cocoa, Chocolate and Confectionery Alliance from 1945

1903

• The Association of Biscuit Manufacturers is formed, which merges with the British Cocoa and Biscuit Association in 1949 to become the Cake and Biscuit Alliance

1904

• Waitrose is born when Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor open their first small grocery shop in West London

1905

• The British Confectioners Association is formed

1912

• Otto Rohwedder starts work on a bread slicing and wrapping machine

1913

• The first travelling oven patent is accepted

1914

• The First World War sees new regulations and controls for the bread industry on supplies and waste. Peas, arrowroot, parsnips, beans, lentils, maize, rice, barley and oats are tried out as substitutes for wheat

1917

• A maximum price for bread and rules for reducing waste are imposed. Restrictions on selling stale bread, the types of grains used, and the shapes of loaves are introduced, while fancy pastries are forbidden

• The Bakery and Allied Traders Association is formed, now known as The Association of Bakery Ingredients Manufacturers

1918

• Bakers are ordered to use up to 20% potatoes in their bread.

1919

• Jack Cohen founds Tesco, selling surplus groceries from a stall in the East End of London

1923

• The Research Association of British Flour Millers is established, which in 1967 merges with the British Baking Industries Research Association (formed 1946) to become the Flour Milling and Baking Research Association (since merged with Campden Food and Drink Research Association)

• The modern rotary moulder is invented from a German patent

1928

• Otto Rohwedder's bread slicing machine is first exhibited at a bakery trade fair in America

1929

• Scientists identify the benefits of wholemeal flour and bread but this does not change the nation's overwhelming preference for white bread

1930

• Commercial bread slicers are introduced for use in large bakeries. Sliced bread appears in Britain under the ‘Wonderbread’ label

1933

• Around 80% of bread in the US is sold pre-sliced and wrapped. The expression “The best thing since sliced bread” is coined

1939

• The contribution of Britain’s bakers to the home-front war effort is considered so valuable that they do not have to join the Armed Forces; baking becomes known as a ‘reserved occupation’

• Slicing and wrapping of loaves is prohibited at the outbreak of World War II as an economy measure

1941

• Calcium is added to flour to prevent rickets, identified amongst women in Britain’s Land Army

1942

• The Federation of Bakers is formed following the merger of London Wholesale and Multiple Bakers and regional organisations, in response to wartime pressures on ingredients and distribution

• White bread is no longer produced. The ‘National Loaf’, roughly equivalent to today's brown bread, is introduced due to a shortage of shipping space for white flour

1945

• British farmers produce an average harvest of 1.05 tonnes of grain per acre (2.6 per hectare)

1946

• The Soil Association is formed

1948

• Bread rationing ends

1950

• Britons are eating 1,600 grams of bread per person per week

• Slicing and wrapping of loaves – prohibited during World War II as an economy measure – is reintroduced

1954

• The Baking Industry (Hours of Work) Act, known as the Night Baking Act, comes into force following a long campaign to control night working in bakeries. The Act leads to the introduction of the National Agreements of the Baking Industry between employers and the Bakers’ Union, regulating working conditions in the baking industry. Although the industry has now moved away from national bargaining, the National Agreements still form the basis for working arrangements in most companies

1955

• The British Society of Baking is formed, then known as the British Chapter affiliated to the American Society of Bakery Engineers

1956

• The number of bakers falls to around 12,500 from over 20,000 at the outbreak of war

• Government austerity controls come to an end. The National Loaf is abolished. Laws are introduced whereby all flour other than wholemeal has to be fortified with minimum amounts of calcium, iron, Vitamin B1 (thiamin) and nicotinic acid

• The emergence of large wholesale companies and the ever-increasing efficiency of production and distribution systems, along with the development of the supermarkets, drives the shift away from bread produced by small master bakers

• The Flour Advisory Bureau is formed

1957

• Within 10 years of plastic sandwich bags being introduced into the US, 25-30% of all bread packaging is plastic (1966), signalling the demise of the waxed wrapper

1958

• The first commercial microwave oven is sold in the UK

1960

• Britons are eating 1,300g of bread per person per week

• The first in-store bakery is installed in the UK

1961

• The Chorleywood Bread Process is developed. This substantially reduces the long fermentation period of bread by introducing high energy mixing for just a few minutes, and dramatically reduces the time taken to produce a loaf. The process also permits a much greater proportion of homegrown wheat to be used in the grist

1963

• The Bread and Flour Regulations are introduced, governing the composition and additives permitted in bread and flour

1965

• The Chorleywood Bread Process comes into general use. The increased scale of bread production, augmented by industry consolidation, mergers and acquisitions of bakery businesses, coupled with the continuing growth of the supermarkets, increases demand for sliced and wrapped bread

• The first Asda store is opened in Leeds

1969

• The European Federation of the Intermediate Products Industries for the Bakery and Confectionery Trades (FEDIMA) is established

1970

• Britons are eating 1,050g of bread per person per week

• Around 75% of all bread in Britain is made using the Chorleywood Bread Process

1971 Research shows the benefits of a high fibre diet. The higher incidence of constipation, diverticulitis and bowel cancer in industrialised nations than in the developing world means that dietary advice during the 1960s and 1970s begins to focus on increasing the intake of fibre

1972

• First amendment of Bread and Flour Regulations

1974

• The first domestic microwave oven is sold

1978

• Spillers leaves the plant bread baking market, reducing the major players from three to two: Allied Bakeries and British Bakeries. Warburtons emerges during the 1990s to re-establish a dominant top-three of plant bakers

1980

• Britons are eating 950g of bread per person per week

1981

• Sainsbury’s uses ‘The greatest thing since sliced bread’ in a nationwide advertising campaign

1982

• Audrey Eaton’s F-Plan Diet gains popularity. It suggests restricting daily calorie intake and promotes foods with a high-fibre content

1984

• Previous Bread and Flour Regulations are replaced with a new version limiting the number of permitted additives but allowing ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) in wholemeal bread for the first time. This improves the softness of the wholemeal loaf and leads to an increase in sales

1986

• Speciality continental breads are boosted by the introduction of Italian ciabatta bread into the UK

• The UK approves irradiation as a safe and satisfactory method of food processing of cereals and grains. Affected ingredients must now be identified with the words “irradiated” or “treated with ionising radiation”

• Plants genetically engineered for resistance to insects, viruses, and bacteria are grown outside in field trials for the first time

• The Night Baking Act is repealed

1987

• The Cake and Biscuit Alliance merges with the Cocoa, Chocolate and Confectionery Alliance to become the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate & Confectionery Alliance

1988

• The First Baking Industry Awards are held

1989

• A new version of Bread and Flour Regulations is introduced

• EarthGrains bakery and residents of Fort Payne, Alabama, USA, make a cake weighing a record 128,238 lb 8 oz, using 16,209 lb of icing

1990

• Britons are eating 850g of bread per person per week

• The use of Potassium Bromate to refine flour is banned and is replaced by ascorbic acid. This changes the characteristics of dough causing problems for the industry in reformulating products

• The British Sandwich Association is formed

1992

• British Baker takes over the Baking Industry Awards

1995

• The Milton Keynes Bread Process is introduced

• Sainsbury’s is overtaken by Tesco as the country’s leading supermarket

1996

• The record is set for an average grain harvest at 8 tonnes per hectare, nearly three and half times more than in 1885

• A bakery in Acapulco, Mexico, sets the record for the longest loaf ever baked with a 9,200 metre ‘Rosca de Reyes’ loaf

1998

• The current set of Bread and Flour Regulations is implemented

• British Sandwich Week is launched

• The Bakery Training Council is formed to “assist the craft baking industry in developing business opportunities”

1999

• Intense supermarket price competition sees own-label cheapest on display bread hit 7p a loaf, bringing the issue of persistent below-cost selling of bread by the supermarkets to the top of the industry's agenda

• Dr Atkins reissues his diet book the New Diet Revolution, first published in 1981, and a clutch of low-carb, high-protein eating guides break into the US bestsellers list. The diet bans consumption of bread

• Research shows child nutrition was superior in the 1950s, when children ate more bread and milk, thereby increasing their fibre and calcium intake

2000

• The decline of bread consumption continues with Britons eating 800g of bread per person per week – half of 1950’s level

• A new health campaign called Whole Grain for Health states that eating whole grain food could save almost 24,000 lives each year in the UK

• A 12-tonne Denby Dale Pie grabs the world's biggest meat and potato pie record baked in a 40ft-long, 9ft wide and 3ft deep dish. The shortcrust pastry weighs in at 3,465kg with 5,000kg of British beef, 2,000kg of potatoes, 1,000kg of onions and 100kg of John Smith's Bitter used for the filling

2002

• Waitrose introduces a £9.62 loaf in London branches

• An Australian study links a bread preservative – the mould inhibitor calcium propionate – to behavioural problems in children

• Scientists in Sweden discover large amounts of the chemical acrylamide in foods rich in starch that had been cooked at high temperatures, including bread and crispbreads. Acrylamide is known to cause cancer in animals and its presence in some foods may harm people’s health

2003

• The European Food Safety Authority publishes GM Food and Feed Regulations. GM in food is subjected to a rigorous safety assessment although the final decision for authorisation still rests with Member States who vote on each GM food

• Asda (purchased by US-owned supermarket giant Wal-Mart in 1999) becomes the second leading supermarket, behind Tesco

2004

• It is estimated that around a third of Britain’s 10m dieters are following an Atkins-style low-carb, high protein diet

• Britain's Co-op launches the first 100% degradable plastic bread wrappers. Morrisons buys Safeway

• The expansion of the European Union sees an influx of workers from the 10 new EU states, helping to fill the industry’s skills gap

• The National Farmers’ Retail & Markets Association is formed following the merger between the Farm Retail Association and the National Association of Farmers’ Markets

2005

• Two years after the death of Dr Atkins, Atkins Nutritionals UK, the commercial company promoting the diet in Britain, goes into administration. Tesco backs the emerging Glycaemic Index (GI) diet, which promotes eating wholegrain breads

• The use of azodicarbonamide (ADZ) is banned in the manufacture of food contact plastics

• The first crustless bread is launched in the UK

2006

• Some 1,700 bakers move to the UK from EU accession states between May 2004 and June 2006

• The average person in the UK spent £3.76 a week on bread, cereals and cereal products in 2004-5 to eat at home, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

• Economy bread sales declined by a dramatic 22.7% over the 12 months to July 2005 and now account for less than 2% of bread sales by value

• The Competition Commission begins a review of the grocery market