Want a really fresh loaf of bread? Those little plastic clips holding store-bought bread bags together might be able to help you figure it out. The cheat code lies within the color of the clip. Ever wondered why they come in different colors?
It turns out the colors on bread clips indicate the day the loaf was baked: blue for Monday, green for Tuesday, red for Thursday, white for Friday, and yellow for Saturday.
An easy way to remember it, though, is to simply recall the alphabet. The colors run in alphabetical order, so the earlier they appear in the alphabet, the earlier in the week the bread was baked. And it's true. Even the ever-cynical Snopes.com backs it up.
This whole system was set up to help the supermarkets and grocers identify which bread was new, which was getting old (so it can be put on sale), and which was out of date and needed to be removed from the shelves. As a general rule of thumb, you should only see two colors of tags on the shelves at any one time, or three maximum for those days when bread wasn't delivered. But that doesn't stop old bread from sneaking through.
So when you go to the store for your next loaf, make sure the color of the tag is the same as the day on which you are shopping. Blue for Monday, green for Tuesday, and so on. Please note that if it's Wednesday, you also want green. Sunday, you want yellow. For some reason, the system does not include those days. Some say it's because bakers did not used to bake on Wednesdays and Sundays.
wise bread
Just to make things interesting, it should also be noted that some manufacturers have their own color code. [via book of joe]
Previously: Who makes the clips that keep bread bags closed?
