ASA Adjudication on Tesco Stores Ltd

Ad

A press ad stated “Fresh bread. Baked from scratch in our in store bakery. Using 100% British flour. So every single loaf is genuinely British … Born and bread". The small print stated “Subject to availability. Selected UK stores. British Flour used in all products that are baked from scratch in store as stickered in pack. French Baguettes, Batons and products not baked from scratch excluded".

Issue

The Real Bread Campaign (RBC) challenged whether:

1. the ad misleadingly implied that bread was "Baked from scratch" in all stores, whereas RBC understood only 480 Tesco stores baked bread; and

2. the ad was misleading because the claim "Baked from scratch in our in store bakery. Using 100% British flourdid not apply to all loaves and they believed the small print contradicted rather than clarified the headline claim.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. Tesco stated that bread was baked from scratch in 504 of its in-store bakeries, predominantly in its larger stores. In 1,288 stores, Tesco said they used part-baked, or "bake-off", bread which was "finished" in the in-store bakery. Tesco explained that most of their stores had a bakery facility. "Tesco said that out of 936 supermarkets, 504 had scratch bakeries and they produced the majority of in-store bread, because they were bigger stores. They said customers would not recognise that Express stores had an in-store bakery because they only baked three or four lines of bread". Tesco believed that the small print in the ad explained what a "scratch bakery" was and made clear that those loaves were available in selected stores. They also said that "scratch bakery" loaves were stickered as such in-store to help consumers differentiate them from other "bake-off" products. Tesco went on to explain that some speciality varieties of bread could not be practically made from base ingredients in-store so were not included in the overall claim.

2. Tesco said that only British flour was used to produce their bread, regardless of whether it was "scratch bakery" or "bake-off", except for speciality breads such as organic loaves, French baguettes and ciabatta bread. They believed the small print clarified the extent of the claim so the ad would not mislead readers. Tesco said every single scratch baked loaf was British and therefore argued that the claim was accurate and not misleading.

Assessment

1. Upheld

ASA understood that "bake-off" loaves were baked at another site then chilled or frozen, and finally re-baked or "finished" on the premises. In contrast, "scratch bakery" loaves were prepared and baked freshly from base ingredients on site. We considered that the claim "Fresh bread. Baked from scratch in our in store bakery. Using 100% British flour. So every single loaf is genuinely British ... Born and bread" was likely to be interpreted by readers as meaning that all Tesco stores with an in-store bakery baked their loaves from scratch. We understood that most Tesco stores had a bakery facility but that only 504 stores baked bread "from scratch". Because we considered that the ad implied that all Tesco stores with a bakery facility baked bread from scratch, which was true of only a limited number of stores, we concluded the ad was likely to mislead.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clause 7.1 (Truthfulness).

2. Not upheld

We understood that speciality breads were not baked solely from British flour, nor were they baked from scratch, and were excluded from the overall claim. We considered that readers would expect that some foreign speciality loaves, such as French baguettes, would be excluded from the claim and noted the ad stated in the small print "French Baguettes, Batons and products not baked from scratch excluded" which made consumers aware of that fact. We understood that non-speciality loaves, irrespective of whether they were "scratch bakery" or "bake-off" products, were made from 100% British flour. We noted the ad stated "Baked from scratch in our in store bakery. Using 100% British flour" and understood that it was indeed the case that all bread baked from scratch was made using British flour. We therefore considered that the small print did not contradict the headline claim and concluded the ad was unlikely to mislead on that point.

On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 and 7.2 (Truthfulness) but did not find it in breach.

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)