Coles cools on bakery claims Coles has admitted that only a third of its stores in Australia bake bread from scratch, despite claiming their products are "baked today, sold today." The rest of their products, including gourmet bread, muffins, pastries and croissants, are partially baked, frozen or "finished off" in an oven. Coles and Woolies are making these bakers unemployable. The national baking body says apprentice bakers at Coles and Woolworths do little more than mix pre-made ingredients, reheat products and repack them, rendering them "useless" for future employment. "Coles and Woolies are making these bakers unemployable," said award-winning baker Brett Noy, from Brisbane. "They can't bake anything unless it comes out of a frozen package," Mr Noy said, who will represent Australia in Paris for the Bakery World Cup. Coles spokeswoman Anna Kelly said 20 per cent of their products were baked from frozen dough, while traditional white rolls, cheese and bacon rolls, Vienna loaves and tiger loaves were being made from pre-mix ingredients. Of the 749 stores nationally, 265 stores bake from scratch, Ms Kelly said. There are 625 stores with in-house bakeries. On Wednesday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission began legal proceedings against Coles for claiming that their bread and bakery products had been "freshly baked in-store" when they had been made months earlier in European countries such as Denmark, Germany and Ireland. Woolworths spokesman Benedict Brook said 10 per cent of its bakery products were partially baked or frozen, while 90 per cent of its products were baked from scratch in their 600 in-store bakeries. The executive officer of Baking Associations of Australia, Tony Smith, said apprentice bakers were coming out of their training with "virtually useless" skills. "That is misleading to the poor bugger who signs up for an apprentice," he said. Mr Smith said after an 18-week TAFE course where they learnt "how to make a proper loaf," apprentices then spent three years with pre-mix ingredients. The former president of the baking association in Queensland, Bill Rose, had to retrain several former supermarket bakers who came to him with "no skills." Mr Rose said a current Coles apprentice was spending 90 per cent of their time repacking frozen goods for sale. They are not learning anything. Unfortunately they are going to walk away and not be employed anywhere else," he said. Woolworths employs 1430 bakers and 325 apprentices. Coles employs 860 bakers with more than 100 apprentices hired this year, Ms Kelly said. Both supermarket chains disputed the baking industry's claims, saying they both had won numerous baking awards. Coles continues to "vigorously defend" the ACCC's claims.