{{Short description|Act of the Parliament of Great Britain}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2025}} {{Use British English|date=August 2025}} {{Infobox UK legislation | short_title = Making of Bread Act 1757 | type = Act | parliament = Parliament of Great Britain | long_title = An Act for the due making of bread; and to regulate the price and assize thereof; and to punish persons who shall adulterate meal, flour, or bread. | year = 1757 | citation = [[31 Geo. 2]]. c. 29 | territorial_extent = [[Great Britain]] | royal_assent = 20 June 1758 | commencement = 1 December 1757{{efn|Start of session.}} | repeal_date = 15 July 1867 | amends = [[Assize of Bread and Ale]] | replaces = {{ubli|[[Price and Assise of Bread Act 1709]]}} | repealing_legislation = [[Statute Law Revision Act 1867]] | related_legislation = [[Making of Bread, etc. Act 1800]] | status = Repealed | original_text = https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ja43AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA322 }}

The '''Making of Bread Act 1757''' ([[31 Geo. 2]]. c. 29) was an [[Act of Parliament (United Kingdom)|act]] of the [[Parliament of Great Britain]], which aimed to protect the making of [[bread]] and punish those that [[Adulterant|adulterated]] it, for the purposes of protecting [[public health]]. It was introduced after a report accused [[bakers]] of using [[alum]], [[chalk]] and powdered [[bones]] to keep bread white.

==Background== [[File:Substitutes for bread; - or - right honorables, saving the loaves, and dividing the fishes by James Gillray.jpg|thumb|Substitutes for bread; - or - [[Right Honourable|Right Honourables]], saving the loaves, and dividing the fishes by [[James Gillray]]]]

In [[England]], the regulation of [[bread]] was often a priority for the [[English Government|English]] – and later [[British government|British]] – [[Government|governments]] since at least the thirteenth century. Prior to the mid-eighteenth century, selling underweight bread was a punishable offence, and thus sometimes stones were used to increase the weight of bread to avoid the regulation.

As white bread became preferable, so did the adding of alum. The concept that a [[baker]] could add chalk or bone triggered a riot in [[Manchester]]. Making white bread meant discarding part of the edible [[wholegrain]], and which was discouraged during times of food shortage.{{sfn|Cockayne|2007|page=100}} Bakers in 1735 complained about the poor quality of flour they received. Traditionally an exporter of wheat, after 1750, England began importing it, with the consequence of rising prices of bread.{{sfn|Petersen|Jenkins|2017|pages=102-105}}

The originating bill was introduced after a report accused bakers of using [[Alum|alum lime]], chalk and powdered bones to keep bread white, and was passed and published in 1757.<ref name="FOB">{{cite web |title=History of Bread - The Industrial Age (1700-1887) |url=https://www.fob.uk.com/about-the-bread-industry/history-of-bread-antiquity/history-bread-industrial-age/ |website=Federation of Bakers |access-date=27 November 2021}}</ref>{{sfn|Rhys-Taylor|2020}}

==The act== The act aimed to protect the making of bread and punish those that adulterated it.{{sfn|Rhys-Taylor|2020}} It generally related to London, with the aim of changing people's behaviour in bread consumption. In order to persuade bakers to make and sell household bread, the act abolished the traditional White and [[Soda bread|Wheaten grades]].{{sfn|Petersen|Jenkins|2017|pages=102-105}}

==Effects== The act had little effect on eating habits in [[London]], with respect to bread, and people continued to prefer the old [[Wheaten bread]] to the new household type.{{sfn|Petersen|Jenkins|2017|pages=102-105}}

==See also== *[[Making of Bread, etc. Act 1800]] *[[Assize of Bread and Ale]]

== Notes == {{Notelist}}

== References == {{Reflist}}

== Bibliography == {{Refbegin}} *{{Cite book|last=Cockayne|first=Emily|author-link = Emily Cockayne | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=doETEAAAQBAJ&dq=Bread+1757&pg=PP100|title=Hubbub: Filth, Noise, and Stench in England, 1600-1770|date=2007|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|isbn=978-0-300-11214-6}} *{{cite book |last1=Petersen |first1=Christian |last2=Jenkins |first2=Andrew |title=Bread and the British Economy, 1770–1870 |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-85928-117-8 |pages= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jTErDwAAQBAJ&dq=making+of+bread+act+1757&pg=PA102}} *{{cite book |last1=Rhys-Taylor |first1=Alex |title=Food and Multiculture: A Sensory Ethnography of East London |date=12 May 2020 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-18173-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cEQHEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22gabriel+scally%22&pg=PT60}} {{refend}}

{{GB legislation}} {{Authority control}}

[[Category:Great Britain Acts of Parliament 1757]] [[Category:Repealed Great Britain Acts of Parliament]] [[Category:Food law]]