How to choose a high fibre bread in any UK supermarket

Turn the loaf over and find fibre per 100g. At 6g or more it can legally call itself high fibre in Great Britain, and at 3g or more it is a source of fibre. Then check the first ingredient says wholemeal. Those two checks tell you more than anything printed on the front.

It works in any bread aisle, from Aldi to Waitrose, and it takes about ten seconds once you know where to look.

What counts as high fibre on a UK bread label?

High fibre means at least 6g of fibre per 100g, or 3g per 100 kcal. Source of fibre means at least 3g per 100g, or 1.5g per 100 kcal. Both numbers come from the retained nutrition claims regulation that applies to any pack sold in Great Britain.

The front of a pack can only use those words if the bread meets the number. The same rules say that when a claim is made, the amount of the thing being claimed has to appear alongside the nutrition panel. So a loaf that says high fibre must show you the fibre figure that proves it.

That matters, because fibre is optional on a UK nutrition panel. The law insists on energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt. Fibre is one of the extras a maker may add. Plenty of loaves print it anyway, but if a bread gives no fibre line and makes no fibre claim, you have nothing to go on, and I would put it back.

Why read fibre per 100g rather than per slice?

Because 100g is the same on every pack and a slice is not. Thick, thin, small loaf, sandwich loaf: the maker decides how heavy a slice is, and a per slice figure can look better or worse depending on that choice alone.

Compare loaves on the per 100g column. Then, if you want to know what lands on your plate, do the sum yourself: fibre per 100g, times the weight of one slice, divided by 100. A 40g slice from a loaf with 6g per 100g gives you 2.4g. Two slices is close to 5g, set against the 30g a day adults are advised to eat. Most adults average about 20g, so a better loaf is one of the easiest gaps to close.

Does brown, malted or multigrain mean wholemeal?

No. Wholemeal is the only one of those words with a law behind it when it sits in the name of a bread. Under the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998, which cover England, Wales and Scotland, a loaf can only be called wholemeal if all the flour used to make it is wholemeal.

Brown, malted, multigrain, seeded and farmhouse have no such rule in those regulations, and none of them is a permitted nutrition claim either. A brown loaf is not required to be wholemeal, so the colour of the crust tells you nothing about the flour. Wholegrain sounds close to wholemeal, but it is not one of the 32 permitted nutrition claims, so it has no fibre threshold to meet.

How do I read the ingredients list on a loaf?

Start with the first ingredient, because ingredients have to be listed in descending order of weight. If the first word is wholemeal wheat flour, the loaf is built on wholemeal. If it says wheat flour with no wholemeal in front, the base is most likely white flour.

Then look for anything named on the front. If a loaf is sold as sunflower or rye or seeded and makes a feature of it in words or pictures, the law says the ingredients list has to tell you how much is in there, as a percentage. A rye loaf with a small percentage of rye flour is mostly something else.

Last, look for fibre that has been added rather than grown in. Some loaves reach their number with an added fibre ingredient near the end of the list. That is allowed, and it still counts as fibre on the panel. It is worth knowing if you have IBS, because fermentable fibre in larger amounts can cause bloating, gas and diarrhoea in people with IBS, and an added fibre loaf can behave differently from a plain wholemeal one. More on that in does bread make you bloated.

Is higher fibre white bread worth buying?

If white bread is what gets eaten in your house, yes. NHS advice on getting more fibre lists higher fibre white bread alongside wholemeal and granary, and for fibre it beats a standard white loaf.

Check what the claim says. A pack that says increased fibre, or anything likely to mean the same to a shopper, has to have at least 30 per cent more fibre than a similar product and still reach 3g per 100g. Read the panel either way: it is the same 3 and 6 test as every other loaf.

Which loaf should I pick, then?

Pick the one that passes all three of these, in this order:

1. Fibre per 100g is 6g or more. Between 3g and 6g is still a source of fibre, and fine if it is the loaf you will eat.
2. The first ingredient says wholemeal, or you know why it does not.
3. Salt per 100g is not red. Around three quarters of the salt we eat is already in everyday foods we buy, bread among them, and on the front of pack scheme anything over 1.5g of salt per 100g is high. Use it as a tie breaker between two loaves that pass the first two checks.

Then pick the one you like eating. A loaf that scores well and goes stale in the cupboard does nothing for you. If you want to see how quickly you read a label now, try the label test.

For the difference between the two fibre claims in more detail, see high fibre versus source of fibre. If the question at the back of your mind is whether shop bread is ultra processed, that has its own post.

Can switching loaves upset my stomach?

It can, if fibre goes up quickly. Increase it gradually and drink plenty of fluid, so your gut has time to adjust. Swapping your bread is one change; swapping your bread, your cereal and your pasta in the same week is three.

If you have a diagnosed gut condition, ask your GP or a dietitian before you change how much fibre you eat. And whatever bread you buy, ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111 if you have lost a lot of weight for no reason, you’re bleeding from your bottom or have bloody diarrhoea, or you find a hard lump or swelling in your tummy. That is the NHS’s own urgent list, and no change of loaf belongs in front of it.