I can’t remember the last time I had commercial bread go stale. Stiff, crumbles easily.
We use a loaf for at least 10 to 14 days until it molds. Then buy a new loaf.
Have preservatives eliminated stale commercial bread?
I was looking at meatloaf recipes that used stale bread. It dawned on me that I haven’t had any stale bread in ages. I “could” leave a few slices out on the counter uncovered. I guess it would dry out and get stale.
Wonder bread, which has “Free of artificial preservatives” printed on every bag, at least in this blogger’s experiment lasted 13 days.
I’ve bought Pepperidge Farm onion rolls that I used most of then the last two sat in the bag on top of my microwave for 3 months (I forgot about them). When I finally noticed and looked at them, they were still soft and not a speck of mold anywhere. I tossed them out. Whatever was keeping those things “fresh” I’m certain nobody should be eating.
I had a package of Thomas English Muffins on my counter for three weeks. I ate the last one a couple days ago after checking it carefully for mold.
The preservatives they use these days are certainly effective.
My bread definitely goes stale. And then it molds. But I have been buying from smaller brands that make a more traditional product. So maybe that’s why.
Mold? I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had bread go moldy. My bread keeps in the refrigerator for months without molding. Processed pre-sliced grocery bread is chemically different from freshly baked bread. It is meant to be refrigerated.
You tend to not see any mold until you do. If you don’t have the spores in your kitchen, it won’t grow. But once you do get the spores somehow, you’ll find a lot of things getting moldy, until you can manage to clean out all of the spores.
I thought mold spores were essentially everywhere.
I ate minimal carbs for six months until my daughter’s wedding (had to fit into my one suit that I’d bought in umm, leaner times). Just the other day I said “The bread!” and rushed to the fridge. “What about it?” queried the wife. “I haven’t been eating my beloved PB&J for almost half a year…” Oh, was it stale. I didn’t open the bag, just banged it against the counter. But only a bit of mold, due to it being in a Tupperware container.
Yep. Even on your hands, you transfer spores just by touching the bread or reaching into the bag.
Staling of bread isn’t a spoilage mechanism per-se. It’s more the recrystallization of the starches in bread- they go from gelatinized (soft and chewy), to hard and stiff. Modern commercial bread has additives - enzymes, wheat gluten and monoglycerides/diglycerides which retard this process through various means. So they don’t go stale fast or at all. More “artisanal” bakeries tend not to use that stuff- their bread will get rock-hard fast. But it can be reversed if it’s not too far gone, by heating the bread in a toaster or microwave.
Preservatives in general, are things that inhibit bacteria and/or mold action on the food- stuff like calcium propionate, potassium sorbate, and sodium benzoate, for example are used to prevent and/or inhibit mold growth in bread.
I remember during my childhood Wonder Bread would turn hard as a rock in a week. Mom used it up making meatloaf and bread pudding.
Toasting the bread helped extend the usefulness of partially stale bread. Especially for pb&jelly sandwiches.
I found myself desperately lazy last weekend and I stopped and bought a sandwich from Subway. When I got home, I ate some of it and left it on the counter for maybe 90 minutes. That was enough time to make the bread (wheat) very dry and crumbly. It would almost turn to powder under light pressure. I tossed the very end of it that would otherwise have been eaten, not appetizing at all.