British shoppers are questioning whether a single slice of bread could ever be worth £2.25, as Marks & Spencer faces scrutiny over its premium Spanish loaf hitting shelves at unprecedented prices.
The Great British Bread Price Shock
While most supermarket white loaves cost between 3p and 9p per slice, with luxury options reaching 16p, M&S has shattered expectations with its pan de cristal selling for £4 to £4.50 per packet containing just two slices. Each 40cm-long slice weighs approximately 90g, making it equivalent in cost to a prepared supermarket sandwich but, as critics note, without any filling.
The retailer describes the product as a "light, crisp bread" designed for toasting and serving with its separate crushed tomato bread topper, which adds another £2.50 to the total cost. Despite customer calls for justification, M&S reports that packs have been flying off shelves, with sales increasing by nearly 20% since its summer launch.
Social Media Success Meets Traditional Craftsmanship
The product's popularity received a significant boost from social media, where a promotional post went viral in July, accumulating 1.6 million likes globally. To date, British consumers have purchased 75,000 packs of the controversial bread.
Pan de cristal, meaning "glass bread" in English, originates from Barcelona where baker Jordi Nomen invented it in 2004. The bread features exceptionally high hydration levels up to 100%, creating a wet, sticky dough that requires skilled artisan handling. Baking expert Juliet Sear explains: "It must be hand-crafted by artisan bakers who know what they're doing - this isn't one for a bread novice."
The bread is manufactured in Spain using traditional methods and contains wheat flour, malted barley flour, water, yeast, salt, extra-virgin olive oil and gluten.
How Does M&S's Price Compare?
Despite other premium bakery products commanding high prices in the UK market, M&S's offering stands out as particularly expensive:
- Poilane's 2kg sourdough in Belgravia: £14.50 (73p per slice)
- Gail's 2kg sourdough: £13 (65p per slice)
- Happy Sky Bakery's Tokyo milk loaf in Soho: £11.40 (95p per slice)
- Harrods personalised boule: approximately £17 (85p per slice)
Even more striking is the comparison with Spanish prices, where supermarket chain Mercadona sells four large glass bread rolls for €1.30 (£1.15). In the UK, Yorkshire-based online deli Basco Fine Foods offers glass bread at £3.40 for 250g, making it nearly £1 cheaper per 100g than M&S's version.
The Taste Test Verdict
Food writer Sarah Rainey conducted a thorough taste test, initially finding the bread's appearance unappealing - resembling "two halves of a ciabatta that someone has squashed." The product arrives labelled as "raw" and requires refrigeration followed by 15 minutes of baking at 180°C.
Once toasted, however, the bread transformed into an appealing golden colour with a soft, slightly chewy interior and crunchy, caramelised-flavoured crust. With the tomato topping applied, Rainey reported being "transported to sunny Spain" with rich Mediterranean flavours and fresh, sweet tomatoes.
The experience came at a calculated cost of just over 20p per bite when dividing the £4 bread and £2.50 topper across 32 mouthfuls per packet.
Less successful were the pre-topped versions featuring smoked cheese and tomato or mozzarella with Serrano ham (both £4 per single slice). These left the bread underneath soggy and delivered a disappointing 306 calories per slice with greasy results that Rainey compared to "a bad frozen pizza."
An M&S insider defended the pricing, stating: "A lot of love goes into each pan de cristal. It's a very specialist product, made to traditional specifications. It's not an everyday white loaf you can grab off the shelf for 80p." The company emphasises its use of "restaurant-quality ingredients" to justify the premium positioning.
