Baking in small changes for a big impact

Saltire Patisserie is a wholesale bakery that supplies bespoke products to major hotel chains, restaurants and cafes in Edinburgh and beyond.

Established in 2006, their mission is to serve up the best quality bakery and patisserie products, baked from scratch with fresh quality ingredients.

Why less salt and more fibre?

We believe that being a good business isn’t just about profit, it’s also about people and the planet. Many of our customers are students and young people, so we felt a responsibility to improve our products in a way that positively impacts public health.

We secured £3,000 in funding from the Reformul8 Challenge Fund and £2,500 from the Healthier Food Service Fund to reformulate our seeded bloomer and extend the learning to bagels.

Our focus was on increasing whole grains (wholemeal wheat, rye, oats) and delivering a measurable sodium reduction alongside improved fibre, without compromising on taste or quality.

What we did

After securing the funding, we focused on two key products: our bloomer loaves and our bagels. 

We carried out trials with potassium- enriched sea-salt blends, hydration/ fermentation adjustments, honey to support yeast activity and a rye paste for crust and flavour.

The funding allowed us to invest in several areas, including ingredients, nutritional testing, recipe development and staff time for trials. The entire project took approximately six months.

• First, we conducted a series of internal trials. We partnered with Peacock Salt, a supplier from Ayr we met at a Reformul8 event day. They provided us with three different salt samples to test – a 40% reduced sodium salt, as well as 30% and 20%.
• At the same time, we sourced a fibre-enriched flour for both the bloomer and bagel recipes, which was a simple swap that didn’t need multiple trials.
• Our goal was to reduce the sodium by at least 5%, but we soon discovered this was affecting the taste and consistency of the dough.
• We conducted trials with the three different salt ratios, taking the raising agent consistency into account and adjusting baking times, and found that the 20% reduction in the salt product was best.
• Once we had perfected the recipes, we conducted internal taste panels with our team who fed back on the taste and texture of the reformulated products.
• We then took the products to three of our cafe clients for external testing. This allowed us to get honest feedback from the end consumers on taste and crumb that confirmed the reformulated product was just as good as the original.

The project was led by our Business Development Manager Jane Franco, with our Head Baker David Blackley and his team of five bakers handling all the trial work.

The findings

The reformulation project gave excellent results for both our bloomer and bagel products.

• The final bloomer shows around a 3% reduction in salt (from 0.72g to 0.70g per 100g), without negatively impacting the taste or texture.
• We successfully increased the fibre content by more than 50%, with a fibre uplift from 2.98g to 6.56g per 100g, providing a more nutritious option for our customers.
• Applying the same approach, we then reformulated our bagel product with the same sodium-reduction target while maintaining chew.

We found that even small changes could have a big impact when scaled across our entire production.

We were initially overcomplicating the idea of reformulation, thinking we needed expensive or special ingredients, when in reality, it is all about making small, calculated changes.

The benefits and learning points

The Reformul8 project gave us so much more than just a healthier product line.

It completely changed our internal mindset about innovation.

Our team - from the bakers on the floor to management - realised the direct impact their work has on our has on our customers and the wider community. We no longer see ourselves as just baking bread, we see ourselves as contributors to a healthier food environment.

The biggest lesson we learned is don’t be afraid of change. For a small bakery with a team of 15 people, change can be stressful. We were so used to our traditional processes that trying something new felt daunting. We would advise any small business to take the leap. Don’t be solely focused on sales. Sales will follow if you focus on improving your products and innovating for the long term.

The funding also showed us how much support is available. Before this project, we weren’t aware of the grants, expertise and guidance that exist to help businesses like ours. Now we know that there are people we can contact and resources we can tap into to make our products better. Our vision has opened up, and we’re now actively looking for more ways to innovate.

The whole experience has made us more forward-thinking and resilient, and we are now looking at our next stage of growth with confidence. The project has sparked a broader sense of innovation within the company. It opened our eyes to the support available to businesses like ours and encouraged us to pursue further projects, such as a circular economy initiative with Abertay University and a high fibre, high protein blueberry muffin.

Food and Drink Federation Scotland’s Reformulation for Health programme offers support to small to medium-sized companies, both FDF members and non-members. For more details, contact reformulation@fdfscotland.org.uk