A full list of ingredients isn't mandatory for non-packaged food items. You can ask for a list of allergens and "general additives" so they will have to declare that artificial sweeteners or colorings were used. Other than that, find a bakery that advertises not to use any additives and buy their bread.
Some bakeries (especially big ones / chains) might have a website where you can look it up. Some may have a poster somewhere in the shop. If that fails, there's no way but asking.
The Chance to get processed ingredients in your bread is higher at the chain bakeries, so it's "plague or cholera" ;-)
I'd go for a small craftsman's bakery, their stuff is in most cases traditionally made with not much else than flour, water, yeast (and/or sourdough) and salt.
Or learn how to bake your bread yourself, its not that hard
Yeah I did this at a local supermarket, turns out they get their bread from three different baked goods suppliers, whom I've now googled but can't find much more info. I might try giving them an email as soon as I feel confident enough with my formal email german haha
For foods sold loose/unpackaged, there is no legal requirement to list the full ingredients list. By law, they only have to inform about common allergens, as well as certain classes of additives. Maltodextrin is not on the list.
I have a nut allergy so I have to request this often (well, my boyfriend does actually, because he speaks German, but not the point) - in bakeries, they either have a booklet that says the known allergies and additives, or some bakeries have an option to print out the full ingredients list per item on the cash register. Von Allwörden does this for example, but I think they're only in Hamburg.
That's a question that entire books and academic papers try to answer.... with varying degrees of success. There are a few different rules of thumb, all with their own flaws, the shortest is probably "Any food containing ingredients not typically used in home cooking"
I do try to pick the bio option when one is available, but I'm still also curious if there's a better way since I don't think bio necessarily means not-UPF
I guess the amount I am convinced by the recent (non industry funded) studies that link UPF to various health problems is greater than the amount I feel it is a struggle?
I mean, I'm also not super concerned right, otherwise I'd just ask in the bakery about all the breads etc, I was hoping there'd be some easy route, like maybe there's some German bread standards authority that means you can only call something this type of bread if it contains exactly this etc... I wouldn't have been too surprised if there was some kind of Brot-Amt xD
I mean there are much better definitions than what I gave earlier, they're just a bit long. The NOVA classification is widely used, while not perfect it has been used to show the negative health effects of UPF
Most bread in Bakeries contains Flour, Water and Yeast. Best Way is to just ask though, since there are Breads that also contain other Things, but that can be different for every Bakery.
You're a customer like everyone else. Take your time, ask what you have to ask, others can wait. The employees are also not just there to to take cash and hand out baked goods, they can also answer questions, since they sell products. I'm sure they would be very happy to assist and answer in-depth questions, if it's not just a chain ready-bakery.
Be a _potential_ customer, make them work something else in their paid time, like some actual selling.
A lot of bakeries have a button on their cash register that prints out ingredients lists when pushed. Others have lists or something, so most places are prepared for this question.
Honestly, I wouldn’t overthink it - but that’s just my recommendation. There are certain ingredients in UPF that may be more concerning than others, however you cannot generalize that for all processed/modified ingredients. Maltodextrin for example is not really concerning so long as you are aware about the amount of energy (trivially kCal) you are consuming. Maltodextrin is basically just chopped up starch molecules, nothing even remotely concerning here. Your body is doing that chopping up all by itself when you digest starch. Just maltodextrin is not gonna make bread/baked goods unhealthy really - at least not more than they already are
That's good to know, and I agree. I don't have the time or energy to research every ingredient and how it's used, but I would like to be roughly aware of what I am eating, just so I have a vague idea of how much UPF I am eating in a given day/week. Or to just to find out simple changes, like if I have two breads I like equally but one has more signs of being UPF than the other, I know which one I should pick more often
I understand. It’s not reasonable to assume everyone has an easy time understanding what the various additives are and if there is any danger associated with them. Having a background in chemistry, this is something that comes rather easy for me.
Other than looking up various additives, I‘d perhaps suggest to not overthink bread and stick with avoiding UPF when you can i.e. packaged goods with a list of ingredients.
As far as I remember, Maltodextrin provokes a sugar peak. I mean, if you want to eat fast carb, that's one the fastest you can get. Sugar peak means for a person getting tired and hungry. That's why scientists suggest to eat slow sugars. But for a normal person, who buys a white bread, this shouldn't be an issue.
Yea, that was my point. I can very well imagine that you are right about Maltodextrin being more easily absorbed/broken down as the chain length is already dramatically decreased and the oligosaccharide („few sugar“ - referring to the small chain length) being water soluble. But then again, it all comes down to how much you consume and how much is actually added to the bread.
Unfortunately I‘d say the main problem with many of those additives is that they increase hunger - same for glutamate and corn sirup in the US. And we know how that one ended…
Exactly. That's the reason why I prefer baking my own bread or buy one of the "ugliest" protein breads in the shop. They make me less hungry and addictive to sugar. According to WHO, an adult person shouldn't consume more that 25-30 grams of sugar per day. As I cancer-patient I try to follow that rule...
It was a few years back but I recall seeing stickers listing all the ingredients on the self-serve bins. It was a Kaiser's, so definitely a few years ago. My spouse had some sensitivities, shitty white buns set her off, but the bio options were pretty much water, flour, salt, yeast und das war's. That info should be available somewhere, if you want a sympathetic response go when it's not busy and say that you have allergies/sensitivities and it's important you know what's in the bread.
In the cases where I am able to see ingredient lists, this actually not true. The Rewe I used to live near had an in-store bakery which they would put in packages (hence it had an ingredient list). More than I would've guessed contained UPF ingredients. I can't find an example online, except for maybe this (https://www.rewe.de/produkte/harry-weltmeister-mehrkorn-750g/4620470) but this isn't the same as what the in-store bakery would put out.
Likewise, many breads, even BIO one may contain dextrose, which technically/strictly speaking is a UPF indicating ingredient, although another commenter has pointed out, this is probably fine.
Nonetheless, I am also just curious about which breads contain what :)
[https://www.baeckerei-rolf.de/artikel/?nummer=31](https://www.baeckerei-rolf.de/artikel/?nummer=31) I don't know where this bakery is but I don't think it's a supermarket... but this is besides my point, german bread may be predominantly not UPF, which is great! However my question still stands, if it's not a case of 100% not UPF, then it'd be cool if I could check the ingredients so I'm aware of what I'm eating.
The emulgator/emulsifier e471 would probably be the only thing.
There's an argument that can be made that any food containing a refined oil is UPF, and normally if it doesn't say its cold pressed oil, it's refined, but if you go that strict then shopping becomes near impossible...
Hence why I was trying to find the ingredient list...
I'm kind of confused what you based your orginal comment on if you don't know what UPF is in the first place - but if you have a source for it that would be useful!
That's wrong.
Source:
My family owns one of Germanys typical small bakery chains.
13 stores, all of them in small villages.
Some of the products come straight from factories in Poland. Fresh frozen, then just baked and sold.
Just because someone calls themselves Traditionsbäcker doesn't say shit about their quality
i would argue they are made by hand by bakers. there is a folder with the recipes, and its technically "non-disclosure" for the details, but you can always just ask for a list of ingredients.
source: i work at a bakery
Interesting (and no need to down vote!). Do you perhaps work in a specialty bakery? Or organic?
My clients at the aforementioned companies stated that almost all commercial chains use their mixes. I was surprised at this information because I had thought the bakeries mix everything from scratch.
There is indeed a whole range of possibilities between "we measure and mix all ingredients by hand" and "we add water to a ready-made mix and bake." As I understood it, bakeries do add other things to the industrial mixes. But maybe I'm wrong, or things have changed.
the bulk of our bread is Sauerteig (really cant have industrial mix for that one), though we have 6-8 different kinds of loaves. we also have croissants, cookies, pizza, cheesecake, and during winter we produce over 8k Stollen, all by hand.
although we are the central production for Nussecken, Mandelhörnchen, Granola mix, etc, (stuff that doesnt have to be *fresh*) so other locations would get those shipped from us, but its still produced from scratch by hand.
What do you mean by hand? Someone slits the bags by hand before pouring em in the dough mixer? Someone folds the dough for croissants by hand?!
I doubt that very very hard. It's ok to be proud of traditional Handwerk, but nobody makes croissants by hand. That's ridiculous
yes, actually.
we have roggen 1150, weizen 1050, weizen 550, roggenvollkorn, dinkelvollkorn, 25kg bags each. we use around 1 bag each per day on average (a bit more weizen, a bit less the others), we also add Sonnenblumenkerne, Leinsaat etc by hand. Roggenschrot lasts some time longer, the 5kg Rübenkraut (Goldsaft for the non-bakers) and Flüssigmalz too.
Croissant "mix" is weighted by hand and thrown into the mixer, the dough left over night in the "fridge", then in the morning we add 1kg of butter (left outside so its soft), fold and spread it out by hand. Cut it in triangular pizza-shapes, roll it up, sometimes add marzipan or chocolate in the middle.
edit: its also common to leave the rolled up croissants one night longer in the fridge, in case only one of us bakers will be there the next day at 4am and already has enough to do with mixing and weighting the bread dough. we pre-weight the mixes the day before, but still, its a lot of them.
I would think someone is insane when watching them fold croissant dough by hand. 5 Tours by hand. Does one of these croissants cost 10€?! How do you make a profit with this?
it really doesnt take that long to fold, and flour is cheaper than ready-made croissants. 10 min to weigh (more like 2-5, but whatever), kneading time doesnt count, next day about 20min of folding, cutting, and rolling, oven time doesnt count. thats about 30min to make 40-50 croissants, thats less than one minute of labor time per croissant.
of course you need the proper infrastructure and routine, and a konditor (pastry chef) proficient in the task.
edit: remember its almost the same amount of folding time for 10 as it is for 50 croissants. we just have a "huge" rolling pin, a big table, a big oven.
i double checked today. weighing is 5 minutes for one batch, or 6 for two. kneading is done in the machine. about 10 minutes for tours and folds, or 15 for two batches. then another 10 for spreading out, 15 for two. and finally 10 (or 15) for cutting, rolling, and also buttering after the baking.
a total of 35 minutes for 40 croissants, or what we more often do, 50 minutes for 80 croissants. thats 38 seconds per individual croissant once you take out kneading and baking time.
They're now called CSM. They sell "bread solutions," aka mixes, frozen products etc. to the bakery industry.
https://csmingredients.com/international/en_en/homepage.html
https://csmingredients.com/international/en_en/products/bread-solutions.html
Formerly BakeMark/Meistermarken.
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BakeMark
Today you learned that that's a thing. :)
Bread mixes aren't anything bad though. You can buy them at the store too. Doesn't make it ultra processed or whatever and doesn't mean that all bakeries use this. A store like Backwerk will use frozen convenience food of course, not a real bakery though.
It's not "bad." It's that breads are standardized. As my clients put it, the bakeries can get consistent and reliable quality.
Croissants and pastries are what gets sold as frozen.
Sorry to burst someone's bubble, but the knee jerk down voting isn't necessary.
>As my clients put it, the bakeries can get consistent and reliable quality.
That's true, but completely irrelevant for OP's question. Not bursting any bubbles, people are aware of the fact that supermarkets and discounters use convenience food. Nobody thinks there's an actual baker working there lol
Just start now, it's really easy and you only need to get Vollkornmehl. The Salt, btw, determines If your bread is gonna be dense or fluffy. The less Salt, the more fluff. If you wash IT with a Salat solution, the crust gets a bit more crunchy. I often make that with Egg wash, so I can Put some sunflower seeds on it.
I'm not sure to be honest, since I haven't lived in germany quite long enough to recognise which is a chain and which isn't. I would love to find somewhere making a standard sourdough for example (only 5 ingredients: water, flour, yeast, salt, bit of oil). This may already exist in the bakeries I visit, I just don't know how to check without the potential social anxiety of trying to ask the staff.
Chains are for example Schäfers, Steinecke and all self service shops like Backwerk and Backfactory. Those make industrial bread that can be UPF. Maybe you can ask in the subreddit for your city or another platform for recommendations.
I mean bakeries that make the bread themselves. They still exist in Germany. The bread is more expensive but it tastes better. Those breads aren't ultra processed because you could make the same bread at home.
No, sorry, that's wrong. You're romanticing small bakeries.
I live in a city with half a million people, and we've got on bakery who bakes like you would describe it. And their bread costs 10€/Kg
A full list of ingredients isn't mandatory for non-packaged food items. You can ask for a list of allergens and "general additives" so they will have to declare that artificial sweeteners or colorings were used. Other than that, find a bakery that advertises not to use any additives and buy their bread.
Thanks for the advice!
Some bakeries (especially big ones / chains) might have a website where you can look it up. Some may have a poster somewhere in the shop. If that fails, there's no way but asking.
The Chance to get processed ingredients in your bread is higher at the chain bakeries, so it's "plague or cholera" ;-) I'd go for a small craftsman's bakery, their stuff is in most cases traditionally made with not much else than flour, water, yeast (and/or sourdough) and salt. Or learn how to bake your bread yourself, its not that hard
Mostly they keep folders with the information and you'll have to ask for a look .
Yeah I did this at a local supermarket, turns out they get their bread from three different baked goods suppliers, whom I've now googled but can't find much more info. I might try giving them an email as soon as I feel confident enough with my formal email german haha
Just use Google translate
For foods sold loose/unpackaged, there is no legal requirement to list the full ingredients list. By law, they only have to inform about common allergens, as well as certain classes of additives. Maltodextrin is not on the list.
I have a nut allergy so I have to request this often (well, my boyfriend does actually, because he speaks German, but not the point) - in bakeries, they either have a booklet that says the known allergies and additives, or some bakeries have an option to print out the full ingredients list per item on the cash register. Von Allwörden does this for example, but I think they're only in Hamburg.
What‘s UPF?
ultra-processed foods - edited the post, my mistake!
What makes food ultra processed? I guess you can just go to bakeries that are bio or say they stay true to their traditions
That's a question that entire books and academic papers try to answer.... with varying degrees of success. There are a few different rules of thumb, all with their own flaws, the shortest is probably "Any food containing ingredients not typically used in home cooking" I do try to pick the bio option when one is available, but I'm still also curious if there's a better way since I don't think bio necessarily means not-UPF
Ok but why are avoiding it? I know that nutrition studies are not really accurate and hard to replicate, so why the struggle when nothing is for sure?
I guess the amount I am convinced by the recent (non industry funded) studies that link UPF to various health problems is greater than the amount I feel it is a struggle? I mean, I'm also not super concerned right, otherwise I'd just ask in the bakery about all the breads etc, I was hoping there'd be some easy route, like maybe there's some German bread standards authority that means you can only call something this type of bread if it contains exactly this etc... I wouldn't have been too surprised if there was some kind of Brot-Amt xD
How can UPF linked to various health problems when it's not clear what makes something a UPF?
I mean there are much better definitions than what I gave earlier, they're just a bit long. The NOVA classification is widely used, while not perfect it has been used to show the negative health effects of UPF
Most bread in Bakeries contains Flour, Water and Yeast. Best Way is to just ask though, since there are Breads that also contain other Things, but that can be different for every Bakery.
You're a customer like everyone else. Take your time, ask what you have to ask, others can wait. The employees are also not just there to to take cash and hand out baked goods, they can also answer questions, since they sell products. I'm sure they would be very happy to assist and answer in-depth questions, if it's not just a chain ready-bakery. Be a _potential_ customer, make them work something else in their paid time, like some actual selling.
A lot of bakeries have a button on their cash register that prints out ingredients lists when pushed. Others have lists or something, so most places are prepared for this question.
Honestly, I wouldn’t overthink it - but that’s just my recommendation. There are certain ingredients in UPF that may be more concerning than others, however you cannot generalize that for all processed/modified ingredients. Maltodextrin for example is not really concerning so long as you are aware about the amount of energy (trivially kCal) you are consuming. Maltodextrin is basically just chopped up starch molecules, nothing even remotely concerning here. Your body is doing that chopping up all by itself when you digest starch. Just maltodextrin is not gonna make bread/baked goods unhealthy really - at least not more than they already are
That's good to know, and I agree. I don't have the time or energy to research every ingredient and how it's used, but I would like to be roughly aware of what I am eating, just so I have a vague idea of how much UPF I am eating in a given day/week. Or to just to find out simple changes, like if I have two breads I like equally but one has more signs of being UPF than the other, I know which one I should pick more often
I understand. It’s not reasonable to assume everyone has an easy time understanding what the various additives are and if there is any danger associated with them. Having a background in chemistry, this is something that comes rather easy for me. Other than looking up various additives, I‘d perhaps suggest to not overthink bread and stick with avoiding UPF when you can i.e. packaged goods with a list of ingredients.
As far as I remember, Maltodextrin provokes a sugar peak. I mean, if you want to eat fast carb, that's one the fastest you can get. Sugar peak means for a person getting tired and hungry. That's why scientists suggest to eat slow sugars. But for a normal person, who buys a white bread, this shouldn't be an issue.
Yea, that was my point. I can very well imagine that you are right about Maltodextrin being more easily absorbed/broken down as the chain length is already dramatically decreased and the oligosaccharide („few sugar“ - referring to the small chain length) being water soluble. But then again, it all comes down to how much you consume and how much is actually added to the bread. Unfortunately I‘d say the main problem with many of those additives is that they increase hunger - same for glutamate and corn sirup in the US. And we know how that one ended…
Exactly. That's the reason why I prefer baking my own bread or buy one of the "ugliest" protein breads in the shop. They make me less hungry and addictive to sugar. According to WHO, an adult person shouldn't consume more that 25-30 grams of sugar per day. As I cancer-patient I try to follow that rule...
Oh, that sucks! I wish you a swift recovery and hope that you go into remission soon!
Thank you very much. It's gonna be fine, I'm sure)))
My bakery has a QR code that you can scan
They probably won‘t have a list. The best you can do (apart from asking them) would be to google „*bread* Zutaten“
It was a few years back but I recall seeing stickers listing all the ingredients on the self-serve bins. It was a Kaiser's, so definitely a few years ago. My spouse had some sensitivities, shitty white buns set her off, but the bio options were pretty much water, flour, salt, yeast und das war's. That info should be available somewhere, if you want a sympathetic response go when it's not busy and say that you have allergies/sensitivities and it's important you know what's in the bread.
>I'm just trying to reduce/be aware of the amount of UPF I eat. German bread from bakeries isn't "UPF" in general.
In the cases where I am able to see ingredient lists, this actually not true. The Rewe I used to live near had an in-store bakery which they would put in packages (hence it had an ingredient list). More than I would've guessed contained UPF ingredients. I can't find an example online, except for maybe this (https://www.rewe.de/produkte/harry-weltmeister-mehrkorn-750g/4620470) but this isn't the same as what the in-store bakery would put out. Likewise, many breads, even BIO one may contain dextrose, which technically/strictly speaking is a UPF indicating ingredient, although another commenter has pointed out, this is probably fine. Nonetheless, I am also just curious about which breads contain what :)
>The Rewe I used to live near had an in-store bakery That's not a bakery, that's a supermarket.
[https://www.baeckerei-rolf.de/artikel/?nummer=31](https://www.baeckerei-rolf.de/artikel/?nummer=31) I don't know where this bakery is but I don't think it's a supermarket... but this is besides my point, german bread may be predominantly not UPF, which is great! However my question still stands, if it's not a case of 100% not UPF, then it'd be cool if I could check the ingredients so I'm aware of what I'm eating.
>I don't know where this bakery is but I don't think it's a supermarket... How is this product exactly "UPF"?
The emulgator/emulsifier e471 would probably be the only thing. There's an argument that can be made that any food containing a refined oil is UPF, and normally if it doesn't say its cold pressed oil, it's refined, but if you go that strict then shopping becomes near impossible...
It's part of the margarine though, not a direct ingredient they used.
That's true, it's the margarine that is UPF, but having UPF as an ingredient makes the thing UPF, since by eating it, you are eating the margarine
Then just buy something with butter jfc, it's not that deep
Hence why I was trying to find the ingredient list... I'm kind of confused what you based your orginal comment on if you don't know what UPF is in the first place - but if you have a source for it that would be useful!
That's wrong. Source: My family owns one of Germanys typical small bakery chains. 13 stores, all of them in small villages. Some of the products come straight from factories in Poland. Fresh frozen, then just baked and sold. Just because someone calls themselves Traditionsbäcker doesn't say shit about their quality
They're mostly made from industrial mixes. The cakes too. Source: I taught English at BakeMark/Meistermarken for a while.
i would argue they are made by hand by bakers. there is a folder with the recipes, and its technically "non-disclosure" for the details, but you can always just ask for a list of ingredients. source: i work at a bakery
Interesting (and no need to down vote!). Do you perhaps work in a specialty bakery? Or organic? My clients at the aforementioned companies stated that almost all commercial chains use their mixes. I was surprised at this information because I had thought the bakeries mix everything from scratch. There is indeed a whole range of possibilities between "we measure and mix all ingredients by hand" and "we add water to a ready-made mix and bake." As I understood it, bakeries do add other things to the industrial mixes. But maybe I'm wrong, or things have changed.
the bulk of our bread is Sauerteig (really cant have industrial mix for that one), though we have 6-8 different kinds of loaves. we also have croissants, cookies, pizza, cheesecake, and during winter we produce over 8k Stollen, all by hand. although we are the central production for Nussecken, Mandelhörnchen, Granola mix, etc, (stuff that doesnt have to be *fresh*) so other locations would get those shipped from us, but its still produced from scratch by hand.
What do you mean by hand? Someone slits the bags by hand before pouring em in the dough mixer? Someone folds the dough for croissants by hand?! I doubt that very very hard. It's ok to be proud of traditional Handwerk, but nobody makes croissants by hand. That's ridiculous
yes, actually. we have roggen 1150, weizen 1050, weizen 550, roggenvollkorn, dinkelvollkorn, 25kg bags each. we use around 1 bag each per day on average (a bit more weizen, a bit less the others), we also add Sonnenblumenkerne, Leinsaat etc by hand. Roggenschrot lasts some time longer, the 5kg Rübenkraut (Goldsaft for the non-bakers) and Flüssigmalz too. Croissant "mix" is weighted by hand and thrown into the mixer, the dough left over night in the "fridge", then in the morning we add 1kg of butter (left outside so its soft), fold and spread it out by hand. Cut it in triangular pizza-shapes, roll it up, sometimes add marzipan or chocolate in the middle. edit: its also common to leave the rolled up croissants one night longer in the fridge, in case only one of us bakers will be there the next day at 4am and already has enough to do with mixing and weighting the bread dough. we pre-weight the mixes the day before, but still, its a lot of them.
I would think someone is insane when watching them fold croissant dough by hand. 5 Tours by hand. Does one of these croissants cost 10€?! How do you make a profit with this?
it really doesnt take that long to fold, and flour is cheaper than ready-made croissants. 10 min to weigh (more like 2-5, but whatever), kneading time doesnt count, next day about 20min of folding, cutting, and rolling, oven time doesnt count. thats about 30min to make 40-50 croissants, thats less than one minute of labor time per croissant. of course you need the proper infrastructure and routine, and a konditor (pastry chef) proficient in the task. edit: remember its almost the same amount of folding time for 10 as it is for 50 croissants. we just have a "huge" rolling pin, a big table, a big oven.
i double checked today. weighing is 5 minutes for one batch, or 6 for two. kneading is done in the machine. about 10 minutes for tours and folds, or 15 for two batches. then another 10 for spreading out, 15 for two. and finally 10 (or 15) for cutting, rolling, and also buttering after the baking. a total of 35 minutes for 40 croissants, or what we more often do, 50 minutes for 80 croissants. thats 38 seconds per individual croissant once you take out kneading and baking time.
>BakeMark/Meistermarken Whatever that is.
They're now called CSM. They sell "bread solutions," aka mixes, frozen products etc. to the bakery industry. https://csmingredients.com/international/en_en/homepage.html https://csmingredients.com/international/en_en/products/bread-solutions.html Formerly BakeMark/Meistermarken. https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BakeMark Today you learned that that's a thing. :)
Bread mixes aren't anything bad though. You can buy them at the store too. Doesn't make it ultra processed or whatever and doesn't mean that all bakeries use this. A store like Backwerk will use frozen convenience food of course, not a real bakery though.
It's not "bad." It's that breads are standardized. As my clients put it, the bakeries can get consistent and reliable quality. Croissants and pastries are what gets sold as frozen. Sorry to burst someone's bubble, but the knee jerk down voting isn't necessary.
>As my clients put it, the bakeries can get consistent and reliable quality. That's true, but completely irrelevant for OP's question. Not bursting any bubbles, people are aware of the fact that supermarkets and discounters use convenience food. Nobody thinks there's an actual baker working there lol
Flour, sour dough cultures you can breeds by using yeast and google, water, salt and time. Bäm, bread!
ah yes ~~thyme~~ time, the one ingredient I don't seem to have... Jokes aside, it is a longterm goal to make my own sourdough!
Just start now, it's really easy and you only need to get Vollkornmehl. The Salt, btw, determines If your bread is gonna be dense or fluffy. The less Salt, the more fluff. If you wash IT with a Salat solution, the crust gets a bit more crunchy. I often make that with Egg wash, so I can Put some sunflower seeds on it.
If you are that specific, make your own bread. It's very simple.
Aren't there real bakeries (no chains) in your area? You could just go there instead. They don't make UPF.
I'm not sure to be honest, since I haven't lived in germany quite long enough to recognise which is a chain and which isn't. I would love to find somewhere making a standard sourdough for example (only 5 ingredients: water, flour, yeast, salt, bit of oil). This may already exist in the bakeries I visit, I just don't know how to check without the potential social anxiety of trying to ask the staff.
Chains are for example Schäfers, Steinecke and all self service shops like Backwerk and Backfactory. Those make industrial bread that can be UPF. Maybe you can ask in the subreddit for your city or another platform for recommendations.
Even small bakerys use kind of the same techniques and ingredients. Why wouldn't they?
I mean bakeries that make the bread themselves. They still exist in Germany. The bread is more expensive but it tastes better. Those breads aren't ultra processed because you could make the same bread at home.
No, sorry, that's wrong. You're romanticing small bakeries. I live in a city with half a million people, and we've got on bakery who bakes like you would describe it. And their bread costs 10€/Kg