In the beginning grains of wheat were consumed just like roots and fruit, then around 10,000 B.C the Egyptians started to grind grain to make porridge. Then they would bake this porridge to make the first wild grain cakes called Eucryphy. One of these was found concealed in the tomb of Ramses II. Well after this, a baker fell asleep in the shadow of a pyramid after forgetting to bake the dough prepared for the pharaoh’s cake. Warmed by the sun, the dough started to ferment. So was born Leavened Bread. It has gone through many trials and tribulations, had virtues attributed to it and been made responsible for many an evil since that time.

First Biofournil bakery
Traditionally leavened bread is revitalised at the Puiset Doré, thanks to Louis Réthoré in April 1980. Born of a long line of bakers since 1902 and working independently since 1968, Louis, after listening to his customers, decides from 1978 to make organic breads using yeast. Concerned about being able to guarantee a good diet, he spends the next two years regaining the knowledge of traditional leaven without adding industrial yeast. Louis starts from then on to become well-known in the markets in and around Nantes as the baker who produces his organic breads using traditional leaven.

At the time, Jean-Yves Fouché, his successor from 1995, was an agricultural engineer with no understanding of organic farming :
« I considered Organic devotees to be backward-looking, refusing technical progress ».
When he met with Louis in 1991 he totally changed his mind.
The BIOFOURNIL breads were excellent, they kept much better than those containing yeast and provided many of the benefits so much promoted by dieticians.

« I have realised that innovation is not incompatible with being organic. The resulting frame of reference served to make sense of progress ». Since that time, patents and production secrets have led to the small Puiset-Doré bakery’s remarkable development, which, far away from the Nantes marketplaces, has gone on to create a subsidiary in Seattle.

Jean-Yves Fouché

GMO Statement

Organic products are produced without genetic engineering. The use of genetically modified organisms or their derivatives is prohibited in organic farming and processing and contradicts the self-understanding of the organic industry.