Quality in the Eye of the Storm: The Bread of the Ghent Co-operative Vooruit, 1880-1914

Bread constituted the core of most European co-operatives before 1914, and, hence, the administrators’ concern about its weight, price, and quality. In 1883, the Ghent Vooruit industrialised the baking process, assuming that this would guarantee good and fair bread. However, the co-operators complained about the bread, and, moreover, critiques about the bread quality came in the open around 1900, which traumatised Vooruit. The paper addresses the way the co-operative dealt with internal and external critiques. By so doing it contributes primarily to the history of food with special interest in quality and consumers’ views, but also to entrepreneurial history, the history of marketing and the history of the labour movement. Sources include newspapers, pamphlets, flyers and, especially, the minutes of the board of administrators which allow a unique view from within the enterprise.