The rise of sourdough to become the UK’s fastest growing bread variety

Sourdough bread has become so popular with British shoppers that it now accounts for one in every 13 bread products sold in the UK*.

Demand for the game-changing bread, beloved by artisan bakers and food connoisseurs, has become so popular that it is now a regular purchase at supermarkets.

In the last year, volume demand for the hard-crusted, rustic styled bread has soared by more than 40 per cent at Tesco – a rise of an extra 14 million sourdough bakery products compared with the 12 previous months.

The supermarket now sells more than 40 million sourdough products a year and has just launched its first ever sourdough baguette in order to offer customers even more choice.

Among the reasons for the strong growth are the density of the bread which makes it great for toasting, its versatility as the base for a filling snack such as smashed avocado on sourdough and the rising popularity of speciality loaves in general right now.

Tesco bakery buyer Amelia Roberts explains:

“Interest in this wonderfully tangy and chewy bread has grown spectacularly in the last few years.

 “As customer demand has grown, we have responded by increasing the amount of sourdough bread products on offer, including loaves, baguettes, rolls, and crumpet varieties.

“Instead of seeing bread as just something to toast or make a sandwich with, more people are beginning to appreciate it as a food to savour, and one that can have many different flavours and complex tastes.

“For those that still have not tried it there is nothing quite like hot, toasted sourdough and butter.”

One of Tesco’s main sourdough suppliers is Leicestershire bakery Jason’s Sourdough, which in recent years has become the fourth biggest bread brand in the country and the UK’s number one dedicated sourdough brand.

Owner Jason Geary has achieved that offering market beating value, allowing Tesco to sell Jason’s Sourdough loaves for just £2 – less than half the price of other sourdough loaves.

And the strategy for making sourdough more affordable has certainly worked – Jason’s now sell one million loaves a week.

Jason Geary, Master Baker and Creator of Jason’s Sourdough  said:

“Consumers are looking for quality products that taste great and are made with less ingredients. Proper sourdough is made with no additives, no preservatives, no yeast, no seed oils, no emulsifiers and no E-numbers.

“Good quality products like Jason’s Sourdough, are also bringing the out-of-home consumption experience in-home – giving consumers the premium, quality offering that they would experience in local bakeries or restaurants and making it affordable and accessible to all through the grocery retailers.”

Among the most popular sourdough own brand breads at Tesco are Finest White Sourdough; Finest White Seeded Sourdough; and Finest Rye & Spelt Sourdough.

ENDS

Note 

* Tesco sales data w/e June 27 2025

Sourdough is thought to be one of the oldest forms of bread and is believed to have been discovered accidentally several thousand years ago in Egypt.

Traditional sourdough gets its wonderful flavour due to the time and effort put into producing the bread.

The flavour develops because of the long fermenting process. No commercial yeast is used, the natural yeast spores present in the levain are cultivated by feeding the mother dough (levain) on a regular basis and allowing it to ferment.

Once the dough is prepared it is left to develop for several hours – a process called bulk fermentation. The loaf is then shaped and placed in a temperature-controlled environment overnight to final prove.

In general sourdough products are baked directly onto the stone floor of the oven with steam to create the crisp all round crust. This method of bread production gives a full flavour loaf that has a chewy open texture with a crisp crust.