Oct 16, 2026 · 19 min · 8 segments
Two loaves sit side by side in the bread aisle. They look basically identical — but one says "artisan," one says "traditional," one is frozen, one is "freshly baked," and the labels mean almost…
Steve HatherlyHostJunyaHostWell, a recent controversy surrounding bread here in China is really, for example, one of them is about the whole wheat
bread.
Some of the posts across social media platforms have highlighted that many bakery items marketed as, quote unquote, freshly baked.
are not actually prepared from scratch on site meaning there are no artisan in the background mixing doughs mixing flour and water and yeast but there are sort of pre-frozen doughs sent into the store and then baked into the product
somebody's saying that's not freshly baked
Yes.
And, you know, I'm actually once a bakery insider because I used to work in a bakery before when I was a student as a part-time job.
So I know some of the intricacies behind, for example, freshly baked or or sometimes siamese freshly baked or freshly made.
And also when it comes to ingredients, I think we are seeing a report from CCTV News very recently about several commercial quote-unquote whole wheat breads actually contain very low proportions of whole wheat flours.
Instead, they're using caramel color additives to make that refined wheat flour appear darker.
And this topic really sparked extensive discussion online, like Weibo generating more than 10 million views.
So people are questioning, like, I'm buying whole wheat bread because I want to be more health and nutrition-cautious, but instead I'm doing the exact opposite of my initial goal.
So this is the reason that they're sort of starting to put a question mark on a lot of different bread products.
So when the bakery says freshly baked, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's freshly baked.
And even if you feel confident that it is freshly baked... then what proportion of whole wheat flour is actually in there? And what the heck is caramel color additives? Why am I eating that when I'm trying to buy whole wheat bread? So then what are we supposed to be looking for? If, Junya, we want to buy real whole wheat bread and we don't want to be deceived at all, are there any things that we can do to help us be successful?
Well, a recent controversy surrounding bread here in China is really, for example, one of them is about the whole wheat
bread.
Some of the posts across social media platforms have highlighted that many bakery items marketed as, quote unquote, freshly baked.
are not actually prepared from scratch on site meaning there are no artisan in the background mixing doughs mixing flour and water and yeast but there are sort of pre-frozen doughs sent into the store and then baked into the product
somebody's saying that's not freshly baked
Yes.
And, you know, I'm actually once a bakery insider because I used to work in a bakery before when I was a student as a part-time job.
So I know some of the intricacies behind, for example, freshly baked or or sometimes siamese freshly baked or freshly made.
And also when it comes to ingredients, I think we are seeing a report from CCTV News very recently about several commercial quote-unquote whole wheat breads actually contain very low proportions of whole wheat flours.
Instead, they're using caramel color additives to make that refined wheat flour appear darker.
And this topic really sparked extensive discussion online, like Weibo generating more than 10 million views.
So people are questioning, like, I'm buying whole wheat bread because I want to be more health and nutrition-cautious, but instead I'm doing the exact opposite of my initial goal.
So this is the reason that they're sort of starting to put a question mark on a lot of different bread products.
So when the bakery says freshly baked, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's freshly baked.
And even if you feel confident that it is freshly baked... then what proportion of whole wheat flour is actually in there? And what the heck is caramel color additives? Why am I eating that when I'm trying to buy whole wheat bread? So then what are we supposed to be looking for? If, Junya, we want to buy real whole wheat bread and we don't want to be deceived at all, are there any things that we can do to help us be successful?
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.