SAN FRANCISCO — Hero Bread has incorporated olive oil into its line of better-for-you bread products.
According to Cole Glass, founder of Hero Bread, switching away from canola oil was one of the top pieces of feedback from consumers.
“First is gluten and getting rid of that, which is an even longer process that is in the works,” Glass said. “But second and most consistent was the replacement of canola oil or any other seed oil with something that has a few more antioxidants, polyphenols, and could be considered a little bit less inflammatory in most circles, specifically with most of the customers we have.”
Hero has worked on removing canola oil from its products for a while. Overall, it took close to six months for the new recipe to be incorporated into Hero’s products.
For most of Hero’s baked goods, it was a simple switch to incorporate olive oil with minimal impact on the flavor.
Tortillas, however, proved to be a bit of a challenge for the Hero team.
“You don’t often see olive oil in tortillas, but we wanted to make the change across the board so that there could be no argument like, ‘Hey, you left this straggler out here, why didn’t you touch this one?’” Glass said. “Dialing in that flavor profile, specifically with the tortilla with olive oil, was just a little bit trickier but we ended up nailing it and making sure everything is all-natural preservatives across the board.”
The addition of olive oil continues Hero’s mission of better-for-you baked goods, which also boast health attributes such as low calories and net carbs.
Last May, Hero Bread announced its national retail launch at stores such as Sprouts Farmers Market and Publix. Glass shared that with a new recipe, more doors are opening for the bread brand to expand even further.
In addition to retailers making room for more products in store, Hero’s consumer base has already provided positive feedback on the new recipe. Prior to the brand’s announcement, Hero had begun trickling the olive oil-based products into online orders and consumer feedback flooded in along with consumers who had previously refrained from Hero products due to the use of seed oils.
“We’ve been looking at our customer service tickets and contacts to us online, and overwhelmingly, our responses this past month since we’ve launched the product have been about that olive oil change and in a positive light,” Glass said.
The newly formulated products are available on the Hero Bread website, Amazon, and in retailers such as Sprouts, Publix and Albertsons.
