Sandwiches are toast: why we swapped sliced bread for wraps and salads

Sales of packaged loaves are down as consumers turn to alternative breads – or avoid baked goods altogether. Is this the end of the packed lunch?

Next time someone tells you something is the best thing since sliced bread, you might want to take it with a generous pinch of salt. According to data from market analysts Kantar Worldpanel, nearly 80 years after it first hit the shelves in this country, we’re falling out of love with the ready-wrapped loaf – sales are down by 50m units over the last 12 months, despite the fact that it has never been cheaper.

Bread is often at the frontline of price cuts as retailers attempt to lure customers back with discounted basics. But although the average price of a loaf dropped from 98p to 90p in 2015, it seems that is just not enough to tempt us back. Sales had been in slow decline for decades, but it was the Atkins diet, a radical weightloss plan based on a low-carb regime, whose popularity peaked in Britain in the early noughties, that sent them into freefall.

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from Health & wellbeing | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1rUz1I3
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