A HEALTHY bakery born from the battle co-owner Melissa Sharp faced when diagnosed with breast cancer has lift the lid on the science behind its business.

Ms Sharp was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, aged 36, and puts her successful response to chemotherapy without the common side effects expected down to a more healthy, whole food diet.

Throughout her treatment the Jericho resident became obsessed with nutrition and making her diet healthier and by looking at diet as a preventative to illness, so Modern Baker was born.

Ms Sharp and her partner Mr Leo Campbell invited Oxford Mail reporter Naomi Herring to take a look behind the scenes at the research and development kitchen in Kidlington – where the work behind the Summertown bakery happens.

IN AN era when healthy eating constantly graces social media and blogging platforms one Oxford business is focusing on making carbohydrates healthier - specifically bread, cakes and biscuits.

Modern Baker was born as a cafe bakery in Summertown almost four years ago.

Since then it has gone above and beyond to delve more into the nutrition and science behind healthy eating and has even built a kitchen and laboratory in Kidlington to further its research.

The business has snowballed and now has its own product range of 12 healthy baked goods – focusing on long-slow fermented carbohydrates without the use of any refined sugars.

At the heart of the bakery is a completely natural, 48-hour sourdough fermentation process used in all Modern Baker breads, plus many of their cakes and biscuits.

It is this process which has caught the eye of a number of big retailers hoping to stock the Oxford-born products using science and a 30,000-year-old bread-making process.

Ms Sharp said: "Since opening our research and development kitchen we have got Planet Organic and Selfridges on board and seem to have a number of retailers banging on our door wanting our products.

"It is such a massive compliment to our Modern Baker brand.

"I guess it was all created out of adversity and I am incredibly proud of the business, and so lucky to work with such a lovely team.

"Each and every person has their own area which helps build the brand."

Modern Baker now rustles up an huge 20,000 units each week to sell from both the cafe bakery and its other retailers.

It has grown its original team of four to a 15-strong workforce.

Ms Sharp also released a 'healthy baking bible' last March in the UK called 'A New Way to Bake', with 120 healthy recipes inside.

This is planned to launch in America next month.

She said: "I think Leo always imagined it would build like this, whereas I had only imagined a little cafe bakery which was no stress after being ill.

"But since the shop opened we realised we had something good going here and once its starts to snowball you can't stop it."

Mr Campbell added: "We all love what we do and are impassioned about spreading the word about what products can nourish and benefit the body."

For more details on Modern Baker see modernbaker.com