French retailer Carrefour has announced that it has reduced the salt content in some of its bakery items by 25% in a bid to tackle excessive salt consumption.
The retailer introduced salt from calcium- and potassium-rich sea minerals to achieve this target without compromising on the taste and flavour of some of its breads.
The new recipe was tested in its hypermarkets in Les Ulis, in the south-western suburbs of Paris, for three months on six of its speciality breads, Carrefour added.
Satisfaction Survey
The retailer then conducted a satisfaction survey among customers to see if they noticed any difference in the taste of the bread.
The survey found that 95% of customers found no difference and remained loyal to the products in question.
Carrefour will roll out the new recipe in the bakery departments of other outlets, it added.
In August of this year, the retailer also introduced new recipes for its cereal bread and cereal and fruit bread across all stores.
The retailer aims to keep developing and extending this initiative to include new products in Carrefour's bakery sections.
Since 2019, Carrefour has eliminated 432 tonnes of sugar and 40 tonnes of salt from its own-brand products.
Plastic Reduction
The retailer has also removed more than 5,000 tonnes of plastic from its operations since 2018.
One of its new initiatives involves eliminating plastics from its bakery sections by replacing it with 100% kraft paper bags in around ten of its stores.
This initiative resulted in removing more than 300 kilograms of plastic in four months.
The retailer also plans to test new plastic-free bags, co-developed with one of its suppliers, for its organic bakery products.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
