Breaking Bread with Hovis

Bread is cheap, familiar, and everywhere which might be exactly why we waste so much of it. We sit down with Chris from Hovis to pull back the curtain on what “bread waste” actually looks like in UK bakery manufacturing and distribution, from out of spec loaves and sensitive dough to supermarket shelf life demands that can make perfectly good stock unsellable before it ever reaches a shelf.

We talk about how Hovis works across branded and own label products, how surplus shows up in distribution centres, and why so much still ends up in animal feed. Chris is candid about the practical barriers: older bakery equipment, tight margins that slow investment, and the hidden asset problem of bread trays, pallets and baskets that need constant replacing. It is a proper look at sustainability in food supply chains, with the messy trade-offs included.

From there, we get into the bits that affect all of us at home: date labels, the best before versus use by confusion, and how fear of getting it wrong drives household food waste. We also explore what could shift the system, from smarter logistics like backhauling to policy incentives that prioritise feeding people and recognise the true costs of food insecurity on health and stress.

If you care about food waste reduction, surplus food redistribution, and practical ways to tackle food poverty in the UK, press play then subscribe, share, and leave us a review so more people find the show.