History of Bread

Man discovered fire half a million years ago, then cereals were probably roasted over open fires about 100,000 years ago. However it wasn't until 8000 BC that cereals were first cultivated in the Middle East, with wheat and rice being the most prevalent.

c 8000 BC. - Originally, grain was crushed by hand with pestle and mortar. A simple grinding stone called a quern was later developed in Egypt. All bread was unleavened and bread was made from a mixed variety of grains.

c 5000 - 3700 BC. - Grain became a staple food and spread throughout Europe.

c 3000 BC. - Wheat varieties were developed and the baking of bread became a skill in Egypt. In this warm climate wild yeasts were attracted to flour mixtures and bakers developed leavened dough. Egyptians invented the closed oven. Bread was used as currency instead of gold.

c 2300 BC. - In India grain cultivation began along the Indus valley.

c 1500 BC. - Horses ploughed the fields, using iron ploughshares.

c 1000 BC. - In Rome, yeasted raised bread became popular and by 500 BC a circular mill was developed. This was the basis of all milling until the industrial revolution in the 1900's and is still the way stone ground flour is produced today.

c 450 BC. - In Greece the watermill was invented.

c 150 BC. - Baker guilds were formed in Rome, where the wealthy desired the more expensive white bread. At this time it was a Roman who invented the first mechanical dough-mixer.

c 40 BC. -. In Rome the authorities decreed that bread should be distributed free to adult males.

c 500 AD. - When the Saxons and Danes settled in Britain, they introduced rye which was suited to cold northern climates. Dark rye bread became a staple which lasted to the Middle Ages.

c 600 AD. - At this time the windmill was discovered. Power generated from the windmill could drive heavier stone mills, but it would still be 600 years before the windmill appeared in Europe.

c 1066. - Hair sieves were introduced to help sift the bran from flour, leading to fine white bread.

1086. - The Doomsday Book was commissioned. Watermills were shown as the primary source of milling.

1150. - Bakers formed guilds to protect themselves against manorial barons.

1191. - The first recorded windmill in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

1202. - King John introduced the first laws governing the price of bread and the permitted profit.

1266. - The Assize of Bread was formed. This body sat to regulate the weight and price of loaves. The first bread subsidy was allocated.

1783. - The first recorded chain of bakery shops was set up in Westminster.

1822. - In London, standard weights for loaves were abolished. Bakers had to weigh each loaf in the customer's presence.

1826. - Whole meal bread, eaten by the military, was suspected to be healthier than the white bread preferred by the aristocracy.

1834. - Roller-mills were invented in Switzerland. The roller-mill broke open the wheat berry and allowed easy separation of the wheat germ and bran.

1846. - With large groups of the population near starvation, The Corn Laws in Britain were repealed and the duty on imported grain was removed leading to an increase in consumption.

1887. - The National Association of Master Bakers was formed.

1929. Scientists identified the benefits of whole meal flour and bread but this did not change the nation's overwhelming preference for white bread.

1930. Commercial bread slicers were introduced for use in large bakeries. Americans loved it so much that the expression "the best thing since sliced bread" was coined.

1941. - Calcium was added to flour to prevent rickets. This was a common problem for women who had joined the army.

1950. - Slicing and wrapping loaves was reintroduced after World War II, when it was prohibited as an economic measure.

1954. - The Baking Industry (Hours of Work) Act, known as the Night Baking Act, came into force. It controlled night working in bakeries.

1956. - Laws were introduced where all flour, other than whole meal had to be fortified with minimum amounts of vitamins and minerals. The development of large supermarkets, began the shift away from bread produced by small master bakers to bread produced in large wholesale bakeries.

1965. - The Chorleywood Bread Process, first developed in 1961, came into general use. This substantially reduced the long fermentation period.

1985. - Following a greater awareness of the value of bread in the diet, multigrain breads grew in popularity.

1987. - The development of soft grain white bread with greater fibre content led to a reduction of brown bread consumption.

1991. - A government report on The Health of the Nation, led to the formation of the Nutrition Task Force, which recommended that bread consumption be increased by 50%.

1993. - Premium white breads made from high quality imported wheat gained popularity offsetting some erosion of sales of standard white sliced bread. A much greater consumer interest in ethnic and continental bread varieties was made possible by the increase in frozen dough's and par-baked breads.

1997. - Bread was wrapped in silver packaging, allowing for about seven days shelf life.

2001. - Consumers can choose from hundreds of varieties of bread, rolls and buns, continental, ethnic and other specialty breads.

2005. - The Whole Grains Council is created at the same time the USDA issues a new Consumer's Food Guide suggesting higher consumption levels of whole grain bread products.