Aldi’s Latest Recipe Change Makes Things More Complicated

Another week, another Aldi recipe change. The sun rises; it sets. Recently, we haven’t been able to move for customer discussions about Aldi changing the formulation of some of its shoppers’ favorite items: its Parkview Beef Smoked Sausage, Millville Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars, and Kirkwood Chicken Nuggets have all received the change-up treatment in the last month or so. And now, another product’s got the old switcheroo. Once more unto the breach we go. 

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The problem some people have with this one, though, is that apparently, it’s complicated an item that should be simple. Let’s check it out. 

Aldi Sourdough: Change Is Afoot

A few days ago, an Aldi customer jumped on Reddit to flag that the recipe for one of its sourdough loaves had changed (the customer didn’t name the loaf they were discussing, but by the appearance of it, it’s the supermarket’s Specially Selected Sliced Sourdough Round), including side-by-side pictures of the old and new ingredients lists. According to the images, the old bread contained wheat flour, water, sea salt, and sourdough culture; the new one now uses enriched wheat flour, wheat gluten, fermented wheat flour, and yeast. 

For some customers, this apparent change means that it’s no longer actual sourdough. The presence of fermented wheat flour and yeast apparently indicates that Aldi might be trying to emulate the flavor of sourdough instead of actually producing it as it’s traditionally made. According to Sustain, fermented wheat flour may also be used to add flavor to bread and extend its shelf life, but isn’t necessarily a live sourdough culture, as its name somewhat implies. Other people have also pointed out that the use of wheat gluten in bread (which sourdough doesn’t need) changes its texture, making it chewier. 

And then there’s the enriched flour of it all. Granted, having more vitamins and minerals in something like bread isn’t necessarily a bad thing – but some customers in the Reddit thread flagged that enriched flour can cause them gut issues. As such, Aldi’s sourdough, with its formerly simple recipe, helped some people avoid this. But apparently, no more.

Sourdough Season

Aldi’s apparent recipe change for its bread marks the second time in recent memory we’ve seen a product labeled as sourdough that has had its ingredients list questioned by customers. Costco has recently dropped a new Olive and Rosemary Sourdough Bread that contains several more ingredients than you might expect in a classic sourdough. As with Aldi’s product, there’s nothing necessarily “bad” about these ingredients, but for some, they make the bread, well…not a pure sourdough, y’know? You might need to revive that starter and break out the Dutch oven, folks.