The sprouted-grain bread baker

ADVENTIST Bakery is well known for its signature product, sprouted-grain bread, the only one of its kind in Malaysia, where it is currently available in 12 states. This bread is said to be more nutritious than whole grain because it is lower in fat and higher in protein content. In an interview with manager Robin Ong Khong Theng, he said that making bread with sprouted grain does not require additives either. Together with the bakery’s wholemeal items, sprouted-grain bread embodies the company’s philosophy of providing healthy food choices.

The bakery has been around for decades. What is the history behind this successful venture?

The bakery started in the’70s and it was not so much about the establishment of a bakery but more about the introduction of a product. The wife of the business manager at Penang Adventist Hospital introduced wholemeal bread to hospital patients and staff.  They started with two bakers. The bread quickly became popular in Penang, and through the years, as more and more products were introduced, they started taking in more bakers. 

What was the mission back then?

The mission of Adventist Bakery was to provide wholesome and nutritious baked good and foods for our customers. The company is growing and evolving, and that is reflected in our latest mission as we expand into other foods. Our latest mission statement is that we support happy and healthy lives by producing foods that are wholesome, natural and tasty.

We believe in high-fibre breads. We started with wholemeal bread and around 10 to 15 years ago my predecessor brought in a new formula for sprouted bread from overseas. After weeks of research we came up with sprouted bread that suit our local conditions. We don’t add flour to this bread, just grains. We sprout them, grind them, and process them into edible bread.

You offer a lot of other baked goods, too. What would be worth noting about them?

We have other popular products, like our cinnamon rolls. We bake the cinnamon roll inside a special imported packaging and I believe we are the only one in the market doing that. The box has to be food grade, otherwise it defeats the purpose. By baking the cinnamon rolls inside the packaging, we can cut down on oil and fat. Our intention is to introduce a healthier diet to our customers. Some customers prefer the older recipe with lots of butter or margarine. We can do that but we have to hold true to our vision and mission.

We also have egg tarts, buns, steamed buns or pao, and pizzas. Our buns come with a variety of fillings. We also have purple berry bread and purple steamed buns, for which we import the ingredients. We buy flour made from purple wheat and purple corn. Nothing is added to it; they spray-dry the flour and send to us.

There’s something for everyone then. Are they all vegetarian?

All our recipes are vegetarian and Halal-certified. If you look at our range of products you will find very healthy ones, down to regular ones. People who come in to our bakery for the first time, you cannot introduce them to solely whole grains, they might get turned off and walk away. So we also have white bread, and sugary buns. They can start with that and then gradually move on to the more wholesome ones. The same products, like buns, come in both white and wholemeal versions. So our customers can test the wholemeal version and subsequently when they get used to it they can go for the sprouted bread. But there are also a lot of cusNike Air Jordan 11Lab4 Retro 4 Patent Leather