Consumer Ed: All the Pretty Bread Ties

A common myth that has been spread is that you can tell how fresh a loaf of bread is by the color of its bread tie. This is not actually misinformation spread by the seller but by consumer reporters who are apparently desperate enough for a story they'd report anything.

Here's the simple fact about bread ties and their color scheme: it only means something to the bread driver stocking bread.

Really? You think you can tell how fresh a loaf of bread is by the color of the bread tie? So what does a green tie mean? Well how about a yellow tie? In other words the colors don't mean a thing to you. They are only there so when the driver is delivering bread they know to pull any loaves that have the same color bread tie on them as the bread they are delivering that day in order to keep the bread in rotation.

Want to know the real secret to buying fresher bread? It's a wonderful invention called an expiration date you'll see stamped on a loaf of bread. The later the expiration date, the fresher the bread is. 

For Example: if you see two loaves of bread and one has a date of say Sept 21 and another Sept 22, the loaf with Sept 22 is fresher.

Bread comes into a store with 12 to 13 days on it before the expiration (best by) date and is pulled 5 or 6 days before that date. Bread can last for weeks beyond the expiration date, but it will lose some moisture sitting on the shelf and feel stale, which is why it is pulled when it is, before it reaches that point.

This is not rocket science. People want to feel like they have some kind of inside secret, but some things only exist to expedite service in stores so the vendor can get more done in a shorter amount of time and that saves the company money, and keeps the price down.

But hey, if you want to keep buying bread because you think one bread tie is prettier than another, be my guest, but kindly keep your hands off loaves you're not going to purchase because I know you did not wash your hands before you touched it.