Fresh-Baked and In-House: Here’s Why Your Grocery Store’s Bread is Wrapped in Paper Instead of Plastic
The paper jacket isn’t just for artisanal aesthetics
The clock reads 9:30 PM. I have 30 minutes before the grocery store closes. A handful of customers wander the aisles; employees start to perform select closing duties.
“The time is now 9:30 PM. The store will be closing in … please bring your items to the checkout area. For your convenience, we will open tomorrow at … ”
I disregard the announcement, for I always make my way to the cashier in time. I am always mindful of not keeping the cashier behind. Granted, I have made myself a just-before-closing shopper to avoid crowds and lines.
As a creature of habit, I also know that the hour before closure marks the magical time for markdowns — including freshly baked bread.
And yet, before even reaching the bakery department, I am greeted by a table of neatly stacked fruits — a series of pyramids the ancient Egyptians would approve of.
A procession of lettuces and herbs, kept hydrated, manicured, and replenished across the wet wall, thanks to the sprinkler system. As the first point of contact, the produce area keeps a handsome appearance.
But the same level of praise goes for the freshly baked store bread: Tucked into brown paper sleeves, each enjoys its own designated cubby and basket. However, it’s not all about looks and charm.
While presentation standards matter, the packaging of fresh house-made bread speaks more to a matter of form and function.
Dry air is the crust’s best friend.
To much surprise, the environmentally friendly and compostable material helps prolong the freshness of the bread — yes, you heard that right.
Just about every other food item under the sun is over-packaged. So this rather rudimentary packaging seems rather old-school.
But the very material helps the bread keep a crusty exterior, a key feature which sets the store’s loaves apart from the other available choices.
With one end open, the brown paper bag lets room-temperature air travel freely in and around the bread — the reason behind the crusty texture, thanks to the drier conditions.
Inside, the bread is then protected by this desiccated and crispy outer layer. You have what makes fresh bread so attractive — a moist inside and a crusty outside.
But this ideal soft-and-hard textural bliss lasts for only up to three days, a disclaimer which helps to explain the selection of baguettes, focaccias, and others, ready to be scored at a half-off price. They don’t have much longer before they turn stale.
And so, why would several different loaves of bread be kept and sold in this fashion? The status quo remains: Before the advent of industrial food production and plastic, bread had only one choice of packaging.
In many ways, the packaging matters far less when you consider the feeling of fresh bread in your hands and the pleasant smell offered to you upon selection.
The buyer’s experience is at a whole other level beyond that of a loaf or a baguette wrapped in plastic.
What about those sitting off to the side, stored on shelves and covered in plastic? What’s the comparison?
The packaging decisions become clearer in this comparison. For one, the plastic prevents loaves from expiring thanks to its ability to keep the environment as air-tight as possible. This condition, as such, keeps the bread from then turning stale and mouldy.
With the likes of notable brand name products — those from ultra-processed backgrounds, with preservatives often added in — you can better understand how their products fare with a longer shelf life.
Yet the situation with the store-prepared bread isn’t the same, sitting safely on the counter for only a couple of days. While you could cover the exposed leftover bread in a plastic bag, to gain a few more days, you’d be doing so at the expense of taste and texture.
The brown paper bag is then the best option for ensuring the best flavour and texture, as plastic would encourage more moisture, in turn, softening the crust and potentially leading to mould. Dry air is the crust’s best friend.
As a little anecdote, one of my fondest food memories from childhood is of seeing my mom come home from the office with a baguette, paper-clad in style and peeking out from her handbag.
Besides this article, the memory pops up now and then whenever I visit the bakery department. And I have to say that I feel a certain elegance and nostalgia when a baguette sits in my basket, popping out the side in true mom fashion.
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