Campden BRI

Being part of the Bakery and Confectionery Network within the National Skills Academy for Food and Drink Manufacturing, Campden BRI acts as a hub for the collation of knowledge and understanding concerning every aspect of baking, making sure that the most up-to-date skills and expertise are available.

Bakery training and innovation delivered by Campden BRI is backed by some of the most impeccable science and technology credentials available in the food industry.

Not only is it the UK's leading technical authority on wheat and all the foods derived from it, but it is also recognised as a leading research and development organisation for the whole of the food industry worldwide.  It’s a membership organisation with more than 2000 members in 66 countries.

Its laboratories and training bakery at Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire is used by researchers and course delegates from many of the UK’s leading bakery businesses, and by trade and professional organisations engaged in bakery science, technology and production.

Campden BRI can draw upon expertise covering everything from the authenticity and classification of wheat and the milling and processing of flour, through to the testing of all baking ingredients, the production of dough, and the development of all forms of final product such as bread, cakes and biscuits.

Campden BRI has recently worked with an employer-led bakery steering group to play a lead role in the development of a new Professional Bakery training course aimed at anyone in the industry with no previous formal training in bakery production.  The course has been piloted in the north west of England by seven companies working in conjunction with National Skills Academy centres at Tameside College and Liverpool Community College.

The standard training programme offered by Campden BRI at Chipping Campden comprises a rolling series of courses of one to four days duration.  Each will be focused on a particular bakery product, ingredient, process or science. 

Campden BRI also works closely with members and clients to develop tailor-made courses.  Organisations such as the Federation of Bakers, Tesco Bakeries, the Home Grown Cereals Authority, and Sainsbury’s Bakeries have been able to select presentations and modules from the standard courses to blend with their own in-house training requirements.

Course content is constantly under review in line with the latest scientific and technological understanding, in which Campden BRI is a leading researcher and innovator. It has its own Cereal, Milling and Baking Technical Advisory Panel, which meets three times a year, and it is also represented on the technical committees of the Federation of Bakers and various committees of the National Association of British and Irish Millers, and the British Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery Sector Group of the Food and Drink Federation.