How long does bread last past the "purchase by" date?

[heydude]

So how long should I *supposidly* be able to keep eating bread safely after the "purchase by" date? I mean, I don't want to eat bad bread, but I should be able to eat it somewhat past the "purchase by" date. (it has no actual expiration date).

[loosechickens]

If it's regular store bread with chemicals in it to retard spoilage, you might be amazed at how long it lasts......if you are talking about "good" bread with natural ingredients, and no chemicals to retard spoilage, that will mold fairly quickly. the first kind, even molds don't want!

Moldy bread, in and of itself is unlikely to hurt you (it is, after all, how penicillin was discovered), but not tasty.

Best advice is that if the bread is at its "sell by" date, I'd pop it into the freezer and then it would probably be fine for several months or more. You can toast the slices right out of the freezer, and if you don't want them toasted, just put into a baggie about an hour before you want to eat them, they defrost quickly.

[Gina]

That's also what I do - if I have lots, I'll pop loaves into the freezer. If you are in a hurry, slices defrost quickly with just a few seconds in the micorwave. If sandwiches are being eaten and the bread is going fast, I'll just keep it in the regular fridge.

'Purchase by' dates (except for meats) are only a general indicator to me. I prefer to use my own senses. For bread, it's gone 'bad' when I see it's gotten fuzzy. ;)

[Tradd]

Until it gets moldy! :)

[Heidi]

Until it gets moldy! :)
And then I just cut off the moldy parts and still eat the rest.:|(>8)

[Rosemary]

I keep bread in the refrigerator to retard mold growth. But we eat homemade bread.
Have you ever noticed the strong smell of the grocery store bread aisle? It's nothing at all like fresh-baked, preservative-free bread. Those preservatives will keep mold at bay for a long time.

[larknm]

Organic bread goes moldy faster in my house.

[rosarugosa]

I am really fussy about bread and I eat quite a bit of it. I prefer Italian bread from the bakery, and won't eat it after day three - well maybe in a grilled cheese sandwich in a pinch. So our two-person household buys two loave of bread a week, and maybe a bag of rolls, and we waste at least a third of it. So lately DH has been drying it out and making breadcrumbs, which is good, but I suspect our breadcrumb production is going to outpace our consumption :( And there's no way I'm eating bread that was in the fridge or in the freezer. But I figure my bread-related fiscal irresponsibility translates to about three bucks a week, and I buy the mid-week loaf out of my allowance, and that's a price I'm willing to pay for the pure pleasure of good fresh bread! :)

[Yppej]

rosarugosa, maybe croutons to supplement breadcrumbs?

[rosarugosa]

Hi Yppey:)
That would be worth a try, but consumption probably still won't equal production. Now for all that we invest in bird food, we don't feed our old bread to the birds. I was under the impression that it wasn't particularly good for them nutritionally. Is that truth or fallacy?

[wallydraigle]

Unsliced bread stores best at room temperature in a paper bag, and refrigerating bread makes it go stale faster:

http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/souptonuts/kitchen_bread.html

We buy Brownberry bread, which is pretty good as far as supermarket bread goes, and it lasts quite a while. I'll snap up several loaves when it's on special and freeze them. I just keep the loaf I'm using on the counter in its bag, and when we're down to a few slices, I take the next loaf out of the freezer.

[Rosemary]

Unsliced bread stores best at room temperature in a paper bag, and refrigerating bread makes it go stale faster:

I know that's the conventional wisdom, but we keep our (homemade) bread in the fridge. It takes us about a week to use a loaf, and it never tastes stale or gets dried out. Stored on the counter, especially in the summer, it molds long before a week is up.

[rosarugosa]

I think folks on the old forum mentioned bread crumb cookies. I found the recipe, now just need to persuade DH to bake them!;)
I'm thinking that the occasional french toast dinner would also be a good idea.

[mira]

And then I just cut off the moldy parts and still eat the rest.:|(>8)
Ditto. My partner thinks I'm disgusting. I do this with all food though. I ignore 'best before' dates and rely on my own senses to determine whether or not it's good. Except for eggs though. A day or two past their best before date is all I can brave.

We also keep all our sliced bread in the freezer and just take out slices as required. If I make bread, I slice it up first then put it in. No fun trying to slice through a big frozen lump!

[loosechickens]

actually EGGS are one of the things that are good probably a month after their "best before" date.......

We eat much less bread than we used to. I used to bake and freeze all but one loaf, then I started cutting the loaves in half before freezing, then thirds, because when we got it out, it molded before we used it all, and NOW, I bake the bread, let it cool, slice the whole loaf and put the sliced loaves in the freezer in plastic bags with as much air squeezed out as possible, and now take it out just a slice or two at a time. You can toast it directly from the freezer, just takes a little longer, and just wait a bit, or defrost in the microwave for 30 seconds if you're really in a hurry.