Warburtons’ business solutions manager Alex Mayfield has taken over as the chairman of the Federation of Bakers, replacing outgoing chairman, Premier Foods’ Paul Molyneux.
Mayfield, who has been on the Federation’s council since May 2012, joined Warburtons as operations director in September 2011. He previously worked at Northern Foods as group procurement director, where he covered brands including Fox’s biscuits and Goodfellas, following roles at Gillette and Esso Petroleum.
He said that while the baking industry faced challenges, the outlook was generally positive. “With the launch of campaigns like the ‘Slice of Life’ we hope that the Federation can begin to combat some of the negative and ill-informed media reports that have emerged in recent years about our members’ products and we can take a step forward in combating some of the common myths that surround bread.”
Earlier this week the Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) called for new salt levels in bread to be set. It said that although research showed salt levels in bread had been reduced by 20% over the last 10 years, more needed to be done.
The call came after research from the Wolfson Institute and Queen Mary University, London published in the British Medical Journal found there was a wide variation of salt levels in bread, with supermarket own-brand bread containing lower levels of salt than branded bread. It claimed that in 2011, just under 90% of supermarkets had met or were below the 2012 Department of Health salt targets, compared to less than 50% of branded products.
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