# Who let this bread expire?! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 12, 2003, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124 "2003-01-12T11:38:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/21 "2003-01-12T20:36:38Z")
My mother would always do the quick squeeze on loaves of bread, to determine their freshness. As a kid, I longed to be The Official Bread Squeezer. Now that I am, I frequently neither squeeze the bread nor check the date. I just kind of assume, like **Rilchiam,** that any bread I buy will be at least moderately fresh. This is obviously not a flawless theory. _sigh_ I myself love Oroweat’s Health Nut Bread–thick slices of wheat with walnuts–but it _will_ get moldy remarkably fast. I just assumed this was a quality of the bread. Now I’m thinking I should check the expiration dates. Oops. ---
**Author:** ![scablet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@scablet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scablet)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/22 "2003-01-12T20:46:27Z")
I’ve left my bread (Orowheat, I think, Dill Rye) in the cupboard for two months, at which point it’s promptly eaten by green crap instead of me. Is there something about bread storage that I’ve failed to grasp? Also, if the _other_ loaf - purchased recently - has a 2005 expiry date, then is it a safe estimate that the 2002 loaf was actually made in the year 2000? Wait, on second glance I see that this is _white_ bread we’re talking about, which to my understanding is mostly inorganic in origin. Makes sense now. Unless this is all a collosal in-joke that I have no hope of ever understanding. ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/23 "2003-01-12T20:58:44Z")
Bread don’t last 2 years, simple as that. Bread stored for 2 _weeks_ will start turning into a green mouldy mush, never mind 2 _years_. I simply have no idea what on earth the OP is talking about in relation to those dates, unless they were typos. (someone back me up here!) ---
**Author:** ![Cessandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/24 "2003-01-12T21:03:35Z")
Could it have been that the bread was dated Jan 02 (January 2nd) and she assumed that the 02 was 2002? Likewise the other loaves could have been Dec 02 and Jan 05. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/25 "2003-01-12T22:00:59Z")
Personally, if I were given the choice between eating two year old bread that was moldy and two year old bread that was perfectly fine, I think I’d go with the mold. What the hell kinda chemicals do they put in bread that’ll let it keep until 2005? Although I think **Cessandra** probably has sussed out exactly what’s going on here. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/26 "2003-01-12T22:20:05Z")
Oh, christ. You people are jamming me into a corner; it’s really crumby. I don’t knead this, so soon after my tragedy! I opened the second loaf, threw the tag away, and made a sandwich out of two of the slices. (They were perfectly fine.) I just now went to look for the tag, but Mr. Rilch has tossed the coffee filter into the trash, so forget that. Maybe they did mean the second and the fifth of January, I don’t know. All I know is, **the bread was moldy**. However the hell old it was, the bottom line is, **it was moldy**. I know that if you **open** a loaf of bread and leave it in the fridge for two weeks, it will grow culture, but maybe unopened, hermetically sealed bread has a longer **shelf life** , and I use that term pointedly. **scablet** may also have a point about the preservatives in white bread. I **do** know that I’ve been able to keep unopened loaves, that my mom sent me, fresh in the freezer for as long as a month. But I was not making a joke! Stop grilling me. This is the stuff(ing) that starts flame wars! ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/27 "2003-01-12T22:33:10Z")
Yeah, and in a flame war with Rilch, you’re toast. Rye or wrong, it’s an unpleasant experience. I don’t like this thread, I’m leavening. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/28 "2003-01-12T22:42:55Z")
All this talk makes me want to break out in song… _Rilchiam, I’m-a want yoooou Rilchiam, I’m-a need yoooou…_ Haj ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/29 "2003-01-12T23:32:23Z")
_Well, I’m lost without my bread What will I eat before I go to bed? I brought three loaves home in artic cold Expired before they were sold I can’t believe they’re mold(y)…_ ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/30 "2003-01-12T23:34:05Z")
**Arctic**! Arc-tic! I know how to spell it! It’s just an easy typo to make! ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/31 "2003-01-13T02:02:42Z")
When I lived in a dorm I used to do my shopping at the local Super Walmart because they were cheapest, and their brand of bread was incredibly inexpensive so I’d buy that to make my jelly sandwiches. This bread was so white it glowed in the dark. One day I couldn’t find the bag that I KNEW had had two more slices left in it. I looked all through the cabinets and it wasn’t there! So I just shrugged it off and figured my roommie ate it or something, and bought another loaf. THREE MONTHS LATER I moved the fridge to clean it out and that bag of two slices of bread was behind it. Not only was it not moldy, it was STILL SOFT AND UNSTALE. I am never eating Walmart bread again. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/32 "2003-01-13T02:28:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Rilchiam, I’m-a want yoooou > Rilchiam, I’m-a need yoooou… Probably someone should change this to: _Rilchiam, I’m-a want yoooou, Rilchiam, I’m-a knead yoooou_ d&r ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/33 "2003-01-13T03:15:07Z")
_WHO LET THE BREAD MOLD? WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! WHO LET THE BREAD MOLD? WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!_ ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/34 "2003-01-13T03:52:54Z")
I say we neuter **Snooooopy**. Now. ---
**Author:** ![JRootabega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@JRootabega](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRootabega)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/35 "2003-01-13T03:58:46Z")
I had to bread my dog the other day, and while I was tying my slices, I noticed a loaf had kneaded its grain onto my wheat!! Needless to stale, I was ryed. AREN’T I HILARIOUS!!! ---
**Author:** ![JRootabega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@JRootabega](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRootabega)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/36 "2003-01-13T03:59:51Z")
No, no I am not. ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/37 "2003-01-13T04:02:54Z")
Sureal, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/38 "2003-01-13T04:05:01Z")
Two words in that post and I managed to mis-spell one of them! \*surreal ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/39 "2003-01-13T04:13:25Z")
I now dub thee: Sir Real [falls on sword after clumsy lurch forward] [[lurch forward also decapitates **Samarm** because I was knighting him, after all…]] [[[sorry 'bout the balls, **Snoooopy** , just wrong place wrong time, you know?]]] ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124/40 "2003-01-13T04:20:12Z")
…ex supermarket worker bread tip’s… Always go for the loaves on the bottom tray, not the top. When the bread gets replaced, the old bread gets rotated \*\* up \*\*, so that people will grab the older loaves first. ::first of the Banquet Bear’s home handy tips… :: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-let-this-bread-expire/148124.md?page=3)