I went shopping last night and was surprised to see gluten-free bread in the refrigerated section. I assuming that it’s there due to the lack of gluten, but why?
It’s not so much the lack of gluten, it’s that it’s probably made organically with no preservatives, so refrigerating it will keep it from getting moldy.
No, most gluten free bread isn’t organic, and it has preservatives too. In fact, it may even tend to have *more *preservatives, either natural or added, because I’ve noticed that our gluten free bread remains eerily mold free, even after multiple weeks - and this is true of multiple brands.
It’s because of low turnover. There aren’t as many people buying it, so they refrigerate or freeze it so they don’t have to throw a bunch out every week. When you get it home, you can either keep it cold if it takes you a while to go through it, or you can leave it out on the counter if you’ll eat it all in a week, same as wheat bread.
Now that demand is getting higher, Whole Food’s has started keeping Udi’s (the only brand worth buying, by the way; it isn’t “good…for gluten free…”, it’s just GOOD!) out on the floor. They keep moving it around, which is driving me batty, but it’s had its own endcap lately.
In my experience (with regular chock-full-o’gluten, not gluten-free), bread in the fridge gets kinda dried out, almost but not quite like it’s stale. Is this not the case with the gluten-free version?
Well…here’s the thing with gluten free bread. (Except Udi’s!) You know that kinda dried out, almost but not quite like it’s stale texture? That’s 10X less nasty than most gluten free bread. Most gluten free bread needs to be toasted to be even vaguely edible, and it’s dense and crumbles weird and it’s just a very very sad thing. So the extra “stiffness” from being in the fridge is only additive.
Udi’s, as I said, is the exception, in that it feels, tastes and tears like actual bread. It’s absolutely stunning how much like bread Udi’s gluten free bread is. I’ve seen gluten intolerant adults literally burst into tears when they try Udi’s, because they can finally have “real bread” again. While it may suffer the same impairment wheat bread does in the fridge, it’s so worth it for someone used to gluten free bread, you wouldn’t believe it. And at $7 a loaf, you don’t want to waste a slice leaving it out on the counter if there’s only one person in the house eating it.
I don’t work for Udi’s, I swear. I’m just really in love with their bread, for my gluten free daughter’s sake. The first day we brought it home, she had just turned five. She had six slices before bedtime. One toasted, one microwaved, one just out of the bag, one made into french toast and two made into garlic bread! She kept saying, “Mama, are you SURE this is gluten free? How do you spell ‘wheat’?” and looking at the bag intently. 
This is my understanding as well. If half of us were eating gluten free bread (not that that many of us need to), they’d probably have it fresh everywhere.