You may not have noticed before, but if you look closely at
the loaves of bread on your grocery store shelves you’ll see that they are
sealed with twist ties in a variety of colors. The colors vary not only by
brand, but also within the same brand of bread.
Most bread companies use varying colors of twist ties to
track the freshness of bread. For example, bread that was baked on Monday may
be sealed with a blue tie; Tuesday may be green, Wednesday orange… etc. The
color coding makes it much easier for employees to remove stale loaves and
replace them with fresh ones. It is faster to look at the color of the twist
tie than it is to read the date code on each bag.
As a consumer you can use this information to get the
freshest loaf. However, the color coding system is not consistent between
brands, but some people claim the most common system is the following:
- Monday: Blue twisty/Bread Tab
- Tuesday: Green twisty/Bread Tab
- Wednesday: (No bread delivered)
- Thursday: Red twisty/Bread Tab
- Friday: White twisty/Bread Tab
- Saturday: Yellow twisty/Bread Tab
- Sunday: (No bread delivered)
Without positively knowing which colors represent which
days, you’ll have no way of knowing which loaf to pick. You’ll have to pay
attention to the color system used by your bread maker. Try calling the
customer service number and asking them what their color coding system is.
Chances are good they’ll share this info.
Most bread companies deliver fresh loaves to grocery stores
several times per week. If you happen to be in the store, pay attention when
the deliveries are made and even ask the delivery man.
With each delivery old loaves should be replaced with fresh,
new loaves. Because of the frequent deliveries, odds are that you wouldn’t see
more than two to three colors for any one brand on the shelf at one time. If
you do happen upon a plethora of colors you’ll know the inside scoop and may
want to steer clear of that brand unless you know their specific codes.
Some brands also use tab clips that have the date on them,
these should help you learn the system fairly quickly.
I should also mention that hanging on to bread tabs are good
for scraping food off dirty plates.
