Is Bread Toast?

By Wendy Cole

When Dave Schaps took over the Great Harvest Bread franchise in Evanston, Ill., in 2002, carbs were comfort food. Hunkering down with a thick-crusted, aromatic loaf somehow made Americans feel safer at home in the months after the 9/11 attacks. Today bread is bad, and it is the beleaguered baker who is seeking solace, both emotionally and economically. "We've just added soup and cookies. You have to diversify to keep the doors open," says Schaps, noting that bread sales fell 10% last year.

Most bakers, a proud, artisanal group, lambaste the anticarb crusade as a much hyped fad akin to the low-fat craze of the '90s. But they're still racing to de-carb themselves faster than the doughboy next door. Hedging their bets may be a smart move, since Americans eat 7% less wheat flour today (137 lbs. annually) than in 1997, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The bread industry's research found that 40% of consumers cut down on bread last year compared with 2002. Not to mention pasta, potatoes and pizza.

Schaps now sells soy flour--and wheat gluten--based bread, which comes in flavors like cinnamon chip, that contains about a third of the carbs of regular loaves. The new offerings represent about 5% of sales, and many of these, he says, are to fresh customers as opposed to recipe switchers. But the reformulated loaves with the subtly spongier texture may not swing the pendulum back anytime soon. "I wouldn't eat enough to justify getting a whole loaf," said low-carb dieter Sue Hagedorn, who was buying her son an oversize cookie at a full-carb bakery down the street from Great Harvest. Upscale-sandwich chain Panera Bread, which is based in Richmond Heights, Mo., will soon debut six low-carb products. "Other people are rushing into it. We want to make sure the quality is consistent with who we are," says CEO Ron Shaich. Canadian flour company Hayhoe Mills is combatting slack demand by marketing its new low-carb wheat-bran flour to commercial bakers and consumers. Cost of a 1-lb. bag: $5.

Stressed-out pastamakers have been notably slower than their bread brethren in rolling out new products, in part because the process of removing carbs from capellini is more complicated than it is from bread. The American Italian Pasta Co. (AIPC), maker of Mueller's noodles, just released its first reduced-carb pasta in February. "We needed to figure out how to reach out to the lapsed user," says AIPC CEO Tim Webster.

Next door to Schaps' Illinois shop, another starch purveyor has launched a counteroffensive. The Homemade Pizza Co. is whetting local interest with reformulated, reduced-carb pies. The shop claims to slice 40% off the carb load by replacing white flour with whole wheat and eliminating sugar from the dough. But those modifications surely won't cut it for some. Bearno's pizza chain, based in Louisville, Ky., is finding a ravenous market for entirely crustless creations that feature a base of mozzarella cheese to support the sauce and toppings. "It's pretty flimsy," admits managing partner Robert Mooney. But not in terms of sales, which are increasingly robust. Still, the concoction begs another question: Is a pizza a pizza without any dough? "So far, no one has questioned it," says Mooney. They're too busy wiping their chins. --By Wendy Cole