Bread should always be at home. Guided by this rule, people sometimes buy more loaves and rolls than they need. What to do with the "main product", which turned out to be unclaimed? The hand does not rise to throw it away.

There are two ways to solve the problem. Learn how to store bread and bakery products so that they stay fresh for a long time. And if they still stale - also put into action.

So what is the right way to store bread? Much depends on which varieties you prefer:

1. Someone takes the loaves in the store - they are often already cut and packed in plastic.
2. Others buy pastries from kiosks - while they are hot.
3. Still others have purchased a bread machine and bake at home.

But there are general rules for storing bread at home, which should be followed.

For bakery products it is necessary to create special conditions. Many housewives purchased bread bins - made of plastic, metal, wood. If you do not know what to give your friends, such a thing will be a good gift.

• Plastic bread box is lightweight, inexpensive, and easy to clean. However, it is short lived.
• Metal will serve you for many years. She is also easy to care for.
• But the best option is wood. Where can you buy one? Most often at the market, at the masters.

There is only one "but". After washing the wooden bread box, dry it so that it does not become damp.

Note to the owner

Flaming (burning) can be used instead of washing a wooden bread box. Soak a cotton swab in ethyl (medical) alcohol and set fire to the cotton wool right in the bread box, covering the lid. Fire is the enemy of fungi and bacteria.

Especially long loaves will be stored in a bread box made of juniper

Why is bread moldy in the breadbasket?

Most likely, the raw materials for baking were of poor quality and already contained mold spores. Once in a favorable environment in your kitchen, where it is warm and humid, these spores have grown "violent color". Or the mold remained in the bread box after you threw out the previous spoiled loaf from it.

• If mold occurs regularly, ventilate the room where the bread box is located more often and wash it every time before putting in a fresh bun.
• If bread of the same variety of a certain manufacturer is moldy, simply refuse to buy it.

Secrets of long storage

• Before putting it away for storage, wrap the loaf in a clean cloth or in a plastic bag, after puncturing holes in it. Air must have free access to the loaf, otherwise mold will appear.
• If you store baked goods in large pots with lids, also wrap them in cotton cloth or put them in a bag.
• Wash the cotton napkin or towel in which you wrap flour products with laundry soap or other unscented detergent. You don't want your buns to smell like laundry detergent, do you?
• Hardware stores often sell special bags. They have three layers. The outer and inner are fabric, and in the middle is a layer of plastic. When stored in such a bag, the bread can remain soft for 4-5 days.
• The bag can be sewn on its own, and then soaked in a strong solution (2 tablespoons per liter) and dried without rinsing.

Special pouch - an alternative way to store

Little tricks

If you put a piece or a handful of salt wrapped in cheesecloth in a bread box or in a pan, the bread will stay fresh longer.

Storage location - refrigerator

How to store bread in the refrigerator, and is it possible to do this at all? You can, but again, you need to know the rules.

If you want to keep baked goods for a long time, cut them into slices, pack them in plastic and put them in the freezer. Then you can get a few pieces when you need them. At room temperature, they will quickly become soft.

The rules for storing bread in the refrigerator depend on where you put it:

• Bread can be stored in the freezer for several months.
• If you put it on the top shelf of the refrigerator, the period will be reduced to 2-3 days. And then, if the products of the bakery will be packed in plastic.

The temperature in the chamber fluctuates between 0-5 °С. It is under these conditions that the shelf life decreases and flour products stale the fastest. This is why it is believed that bread should not be stored in the refrigerator. Bread will not mold in the refrigerator, even if the raw material contains a fungus.

Tip of the day

When using the loaf, cut it in half. And then cut off the slices from the middle. When removing the remaining bread for storage, press the slices of the two halves to each other. Then the inside of the loaf will not stale longer.

Black and white - together or apart?

Now let's talk about varieties. Black and white bread should be stored separately from each other:

• First, they have different humidity.
• Secondly, "nigella" has a stronger smell, which will definitely pass to white rolls if they lie together.

The opinion that black bread is healthier than white bread is not true. It all depends on the individual reaction of the body to a particular variety.

Loaves and "slicing" bought in the store are bread with a long shelf life due to special additives. If you prefer hot pastries from a local factory or you bake yourself, do not put the loaf in a plastic bag until it has completely cooled down. The moisture that will be released during the cooling process will cause the carpet to become moldy.

Homemade bread, subject to the rules of storage, will be usable for 8-10 days.

Do you know that…

If some piece of bread began to deteriorate, moldy - you can’t let this matter go by itself. It should be thrown away immediately so that it does not “contaminate” other flour products.

The second life of the loaf

What to do if the bread is still stale:

1. “Second life” can be breathed into it by slightly moistening with water and holding for 1-2 minutes in the oven at a temperature of 40-50 ° C.
2. You can moisten a stale loaf with sweetened water with vanilla, after the microwave you will eat a pleasant, fresh muffin.
3. You can also use a water bath. Pour some water into a large saucepan and put on fire. Place the bread in a colander so that moist steam envelops it, cover with a lid. After a few minutes, the loaf will become soft. The taste of fresh baking will not return, but it will turn out quite edible.

Dried bread in a number of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract is preferable to fresh. It is also useful for those who are on a diet lush and tender.

In the culinary literature, you will find many descriptions of dishes using stale bread - from casseroles to desserts. There are also videos on this topic:

Now you know the secrets of saving bread and baked goods, how to store them in the refrigerator, and that bread can be frozen. However, this product is meant to be consumed quickly. Therefore, try to buy bread in moderation.

Store properly and be healthy!

The most common and harmful type of microbiological spoilage of bread is mold caused by mold fungi.

Molds are very widespread in nature. This group includes fungi of the genus Aspergillus, Mucor, Penicillium, Rizopus, Geotrichum, Oospora, Monilia. Mold spores are very resistant and able to remain viable for up to 15 years.

Bread becomes infected with mold after it comes out of the oven. The source of infection is people and objects in contact with bread, as well as the air of industrial premises containing a large number of mold spores (according to various sources, the air of industrial premises of a bakery contains up to 50-100 thousand mold spores per 1 m 3). There is especially a lot of mold in the air of those rooms that receive bread for recycling.

The worse the sanitary condition of the bakery, the more bread is seeded with mold spores. But even with a good sanitary condition of production, mold infection of bread occurs through flour dust, which is almost impossible to get rid of in a bakery.

Usually, with normal humidity and proper storage conditions, mold fungi do not develop in flour, however, with an increase in air humidity, mold spores begin to germinate and form micelles. Flour at the same time acquires a characteristic unpleasant musty smell, which is usually transmitted to bread. Baking properties of contaminated flour are reduced. Most often, flour affected by mold becomes unsuitable for baking bread.

Molds are very unpretentious to food sources and are able to develop in a fairly wide range of temperatures and humidity. The optimal environment for their rapid reproduction is created under aerobic conditions at a temperature of 25-35 o C, air humidity 70-80%, substrate pH 4.5-5.5. Just such an environment provides packaged bread during storage. Tight stacking of unwrapped bread also promotes the rapid development of mold.

Molds are strict aerobes, therefore they infect products from the surface. A fluffy coating of rapidly developing mold mycelium quickly appears on the surface of the affected bread. Mycelium from the surface penetrates into the crumb, and the product becomes unsuitable for nutrition. Mold fungi have highly active enzyme systems capable of breaking down proteins, carbohydrates, fats and other organic substances. Products formed by molds in the process of life give the bread an unpleasant smell and taste. Some mold metabolites are extremely toxic and pose a threat to human health even in small concentrations. Experimental data indicate that many types of molds (about 80 species) form mycotoxins, among which the most known are 6 types of aflatoxins, patulin, ochratoxins, rubratoxins and others. Aflatoxins are not only toxic to humans, but also exhibit carcinogenic activity.

Measures to prevent moldy bread

– implementation of a set of measures to reduce the contamination of mold spores in the air of industrial premises and the expedition;

– active ventilation of air in the premises of the bakery;

- careful sanitization of equipment and inventory in contact with the finished product;

- proper packaging of finished products;

- in order to avoid the formation of condensate, it is not allowed to pack warm bread in water- and gas-tight materials;

- heat treatment, sterilization of bread with high-frequency currents or ionizing radiation directly in the package (in Russia, these methods have not been widely used for mass varieties of bread);

- storage of bread in a frozen state (-24 ° C), in a vacuum or in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide;

- treatment of bread with ethyl alcohol vapors in sealed packaging;

- surface treatment of bread with ethyl alcohol or a solution of sorbic acid and its salts;

- packaging of bread in material impregnated with sorbic acid or other bactericidal substances;

Inclusion of chemical preservatives approved for use in food production in the dough formulation (sorbic, acetic, propionic and other org. acids and their salts);

- the use of microbiological methods for protecting bread (the use of cultures of bacteria and starter cultures (propionic acid, vitamin, etc.) containing the appropriate microorganisms that release substances into the environment that inhibit the development of mold;

- the use of hop extracts and mustard powder to delay the development of mold.

For the first half of the year - almost 100 thousand tons less than for the same period last year. However, these statistics apply only to large enterprises. The missing tons are baked in small, often dirty and illegal bakeries. Bread comes out not only tasteless, but also dangerous to health. And if the loaf is to lie down a little, it does not get stale, as before, but becomes covered with mold. What do we eat, hoping that we eat bread?

Operational shooting. In the center of Moscow, it was opened, they were sold in markets and supermarkets.

Elena Sviridova survived the tragedy. Her child almost died. He just ate a piece of bread bought by his mother in the store. Allergic edema - they managed to save little Anton. “The whole body was covered with a purple rash and the face began to swell. I called an ambulance, they arrived, they explained to me that this is Quincke’s edema - an allergic edema, which in 30-40% of cases ends in death,” says Elena.

The bread was baked at the bakery. But in addition to flour, salt and yeast, hydro fats, an acidity regulator, an "oil" flavoring, and a "bread" dye were added to it. This is the technical condition. “Here, they didn’t add sugar a little, but here they overcooked it a little and molded it poorly. The molding machine is clearly junk. And here they used improvers,” said Yuri Katsnelson, president of the Russian Guild of Bakers and Confectioners.

TU is when, instead of the recipe established by GOST, there is any set of ingredients. If only the product tasted like bread. We are in the testing laboratory and now we will test the bread for compliance with the declared parameters. And this one is a few days old, and it's all moldy. One loaf was recognized by the examination as satisfactory. Another, rifled, turned out to be half-baked and rubbery. Perhaps they went too far with the lobe - this is how bakers call the remains of old bread, which can be added to fresh dough.

“Its sales period in trade has expired - trade returns it by , and they have the right to use 10%, only not if such bread, if there are no signs of mold and disease,” says the chief technologist of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Control Galina Zoloeva.

To examine the third loaf, I had to wear rubber gloves. “The presence of mold is already a necessary condition for mycotoxins to appear in bread, which attack both the human liver and kidneys,” said Svyatoslav Dobrev, deputy head of the chemical-toxicological department of the testing laboratory for determining the safety and quality of products. Fears were confirmed - dangerous bacteria were found in the bread, which are not excreted from the human body. They got into this loaf, presumably, along with grain.

Photos of some, which were taken by the laboratory staff. Mold. Germinated, that is, wheat unsuitable for bread. And the decoration of the collection is an animal resting peacefully in the grain. Bakery products are tested for safety. There is virtually no quality control. In the late 90s, mandatory GOSTs became voluntary. In 2004, the bread inspection, which monitored the quality of bread, was disbanded. And now inspections are carried out only once every three years.

"So, for this loaf, you need flour made from wheat of at least the third class. And they can take and make this flour from the fifth class, which is intended for animal feed, and we have it all the time. We take it and put it like this He is rising with us," says Elena Zabelina.

Elena Zabelina, the best baker of 2012, uses her own technology. He says that good bread is easy to bake - no need to save. But he sells his products to the store next door. Then for some reason it doesn't work.

Black tin bread (Fazer) Deadline: “best before” April 12 Ingredients: rye flour, water, wheat flour, sugar, rye malt flour, barley malt extract, yeast, table salt Price: 0.65 EUR

The higher sugar content of rye bread prevents the formation of mold, bread with seeds molds faster due to increased humidity.

The assortment of bread in the store is getting richer, and even the most enlightened shoppers can find themselves at a loss not knowing which bread to choose. Many of us, when buying bread, are guided not only by price; we want to know both the composition of the bread and how long it will be stored without losing its taste.

“I bought Eesti Pagar black tin bread, the packaging of which says that it does not contain E-additives. The bread is very good; But the son advised against buying this bread, referring to the fact that it does not even grow moldy. Indeed, I conducted an experiment - I kept bread in a plastic bag for a month - and made sure that the bread did not get moldy and remained soft, ”a Postimees reader wrote to us.

We decided to find out why one bread quickly becomes moldy, while the other does not. Is it true that some varieties of rye bread contain preservatives not listed on the packaging, or do they contain some mysterious ingredients that prevent the growth of molds?

As all manufacturers have assured us, no special ingredients are added to the bread during the baking process that would prevent the formation of mold, and no secret tricks are used. But there are a number of reasons why one bread molds faster or slower than another.

We decided to conduct our own experiment and on April 8, we bought eight types of rye pan bread in the grocery department of the Tallinn House of Trade. They were sliced ​​halves of loaves packed in plastic bags. According to the manufacturers, not a single bread contains preservatives. We chose a variety of breads: classic rye bread, several types of bread with seeds, hand-made bread, etc. eco bread. As it was clear from the dates indicated on the packaging, it was desirable to consume the bread before April 10-13, i.e. bread was not supposed to spoil within five days.

Bread was stored at room temperature in sealed bags. The experiment lasted exactly one month, and its results impressed us: the mold appeared only on three loaves, the remaining five looked quite edible after a month.

In order to make sure of this, we opened the packages and carried out a small taste and smell test.

On April 13, five days after the start of the experiment, mold spots appeared on Karja Terviseleib bread, which had a shelf life of April 10. Soon the bread was covered with a layer of green mold, the spores of which flew out of the hole in the package.

Heat and moisture matter

As explained by Aivo Kanemägi, CEO of Karja Pagariäri, Terviseleib has a shelf life of five days, and no preservatives are used in baking the bread. The composition of Terviseleib (the name can be translated as “bread for health”), as the head of the company explained, includes high-quality natural raw materials, and a special sourdough is used for fermentation.

“Bread molds quickly in a warm and humid atmosphere, such as at room temperature,” said Kanemäe, adding that the process of mold formation depends on the time of year; So, the most favorable month for the formation of mold is August.

The high moisture content in the bread also contributes to the appearance of mold. Karja Pagariäri tin bread is characterized by high humidity, which allows it to stay fresh longer. The plastic bags in which such bread is packed have special holes to allow moisture to evaporate. “Moisture comes out through these holes, but mold fungi penetrate through them. They are always in the air, including in salesrooms and store warehouses,” said Kanemägi.

Seeds added to bread can also contribute to the formation of mold, since it is on them that mold spores are located. The flax, sunflower and sesame seeds included in Karja Terviseleib bind water, thereby increasing the moisture content of the bread.

“If you chose other types of bread that we bake, such as rye bread or raisin bread, you would make sure that they are less moldy. Often, such bread does not grow moldy at all as a result of long-term storage, but only becomes stale, since moisture evaporates through the holes on the packaging,” said Kanemägi.

In our experiment, another bread containing seeds also participated, which by the end of the experiment was not covered with mold.

A week after the start of our experience, we noted the appearance of mold on the delicate black (eco) bread from Vändra Ökopagar, which should have been consumed “better before” April 11th. The white mold that appeared on the bread looked like cotton wool.

Vändra Ökopagar production manager Indrek Laaniste said that the shelf life of bread is four days, the company's products do not contain preservatives. “In general, under normal storage conditions, bread stays fresh longer. Bread molds faster if stored in a warm and humid place, the specialist noted. – Breadbaskets, which can be infected with mold fungi, also contribute to the formation of mold. Bread with seeds and grains gets moldy faster.”

Cleanliness is the main enemy of mold

A week later (April 15), the first mold spots appeared on Leibur's classic whole grain rye bread, which should have been consumed "better before" April 10. Leibur bread was the only one in the experiment that did not include sugar. According to Heldi Käär, the author of a recipe for rye bread made from whole grain flour, the high sugar content prevents mold, but, as a rule, bread does not put a lot of sugar in bread. Käär, developing a recipe for bread, decided to do without sugar altogether.

According to Käär, the bread (and it contains no preservatives) has a shelf life of three days. “The shelf life of bread in closed packaging depends on how carefully the hygiene requirements were observed at all stages. The acidity of whole grain bread is higher than bread made with fine flour,” she said, explaining why Leibur bread can stay fresh for a long time.

“If the bread contains grains, seeds and is baked from whole grain flour, then it is likely that along with the raw materials it will contain many molds. But in general, the resistance of bread to mold depends more on the manufacturing process, the acidity of the bread, and especially on how clean the environment in which the baked bread enters is,” said Käär.

According to her, bread with a short fermentation period and low acidity molds faster. “It is the acidity of the bread that prevents it from molding, since mold develops more slowly in an acidic environment,” she said.

On the rest of the bread that participated in the experiment, the mold did not appear. On May 8, we decided to check how it tastes, if it has lost its aroma.

Bread does not lose its taste even after a month

As Eesti Pagar chief technologist Monika Alberg said even before the start of the experiment, after the expiration of the shelf life, the bread may lose its characteristic smell and taste, its texture may change, but the main thing is that after the expiration date, the bread does not pose a danger to humans if the storage conditions are met. We decided to take a chance and after almost a month after the expiration of the “better before” period, we tried the bread.

Eesti Pagar black tin bread had a wonderful smell, it remained soft and tasty. Bread with Jassi seeds had a wonderful aroma, and long-term storage did not affect its taste in any way, the bread remained soft. The term for the implementation of both bread is four to five days. “When baking rye bread, we use rye sourdough. Thanks to sourdough, bread has a good taste, smell, and it does not go stale for a long time. And this despite the fact that the bread does not contain preservatives,” said Ahlberg.

Due to the fact that Eesti Pagar uses a natural sourdough starter based on rye flour when preparing the dough, the bread has a longer shelf life than bakery products baked from non-fermented dough. If Eesti Pagar bread surprised us by staying fresh for a long time, then Oti (Euroleib) tin bread became stale during the experiment, losing its aroma and taste.

As Euroleib technologist Ene Seer said, the bread does not contain preservatives. “Malt, especially dark malt, in the composition of bread improves its palatability, makes the shelf life longer. Bread made from rye flour with a long fermentation process has a more delicate taste and does not get moldy for a long time,” she explained.

The rye bread with sprouted seeds, which is baked by the Lõuna Pagarid company, also became stale during the experiment. “Molds are very sensitive to acids and salt. Since the acidic environment prevents mold growth, we use a natural sourdough starter, which makes the dough more acidic and mold resistant,” said Mikko Pihtje from Lõuna Pagarid.

According to the producers, the appearance of mold depends on whether the bread is in polyethylene or paper packaging. In a paper bag, the bread will stale faster, but not moldy. In a plastic bag, bread retains moisture longer, so bread is sold in stores mainly in them.

In conclusion, we note that the experiment ended quite well for the bread taster. So if digestion is in order, hunger can be satisfied with a piece of bread forgotten for a month in the breadbasket, although just in case we would not recommend doing this.

If you look back several decades ago, you can see the following pattern: the bread could dry out after a few days, but not “bloom”, becoming covered with mold. Because there were no… plastic bags!

Bread was stored in the old fashioned way - in cloth bags or wrapped in paper. And some housewives put it in an ordinary pan! After all, this is how our ancestors kept bread. And they knew a lot about it.

But then convenient plastic bags appeared, which replaced paper packaging, and bread successfully moved into them.

Meanwhile, bread is a living product. He continues to "breathe" even after baking, releasing carbon dioxide, thanks to the yeast that is involved in its production.

Bread placed in polyethylene simply suffocates. A fungus develops in it, mold appears, and the housewives begin to blame manufacturers for dishonesty.

But how then to store bread so that it remains fresh for several days? You need to think about this even in the store. In some stores, sellers, having accepted bread from suppliers, immediately pack it in plastic bags, apparently in order not to return dried products, as well as to speed up the process of serving customers. Thus, they are doing a disservice, because bread most often comes to store shelves almost from the oven - crispy and hot, and if it has already cooled down on the outside, it is still warm inside. When such bread is placed in a film bag, condensate accumulates on its inner walls, which becomes the culprit of product spoilage.

But then what about the bread that is sold immediately in sealed packages?

The fact is that factory packaging is not made of polyethylene, but of cellophane. And they are not completely sealed. If you look closely at them, you can see a lot of small holes, thanks to which the “breathing” of the bread occurs, it does not deteriorate or become stale.

There is only one conclusion: It is not necessary to store bread in polyethylene packaging.

How to store bread in a bread box

Many housewives resort to this method of storing bread. Fortunately, in stores now you can buy a bread box from any material, given its color, shape, as well as your financial capabilities.

The best bread bins are those made of wood.

Before putting the bread in the bread box, it must be cooled down.

To prevent the bread from drying out due to the air entering it, it is advisable to wrap the loaf in paper or cotton cloth.

It is impossible to store white bread and rye (bran) bread in the bread box, as the smells will mix and this will affect the quality of the bread.
It is necessary to monitor the cleanliness in the breadbasket: remove the crumbs in time, ventilate it. If an unpleasant smell appears, the bread box is wiped with a cloth dipped in vinegar, and then dried well. Helps to fight the unpleasant smell of lemon.

Instead of a bread box, you can use a stainless steel pan. But in this case, the container should not be used for cooking or storing other products.

How else can you store bread?

Bread is stored in paper bags . The cooled bread is placed in a bag and put in a cool place where there is no light, but it is necessary that there is enough fresh air.

In such a package, the bread does not go stale for several days and does not suffocate. Instead of a paper bag, you can wrap the loaf in clean paper.

Linen or canvas fabric - good packaging for bread.

The loaf is wrapped in several layers of fabric and stored in a cool, dry place, such as a pantry. But in this case, there should not be any smelling substances, because bread easily absorbs all smells.

How to store bread in the refrigerator

Many housewives, having suffered from the constant spoilage of bread, store it in the refrigerator, packing it in a paper or plastic bag. This way of storage is quite justified. It is especially relevant in areas with a hot climate, where the only cool place is the refrigerator.

Bread doesn't really spoil. But you need to keep in mind that, placed in the refrigerator, it begins to actively evaporate moisture and after 2-3 days it becomes dense and tight. But it doesn't sting.

Another place where housewives store bread is the freezer. Its convenience was appreciated by those who eat little bread, for example, they save their figure. Then proceed as follows:

The bun is cut into thin slices.

Then they are individually packaged in plastic bags and hermetically sealed.

Removed to the freezer.

Remove the bread from the freezer as needed and defrost at room temperature. To restore a fresh look to the bread, it is placed in an oven heated to 150 °, and kept for no more than five minutes. It is better not to heat such bread in the microwave oven, as it becomes wet and tasteless.

Note to the owner

To keep the bread soft longer, cut raw potatoes or an apple are placed in the bread box with it.

Bread begins to be cut not from the edge, but from the middle. That is, cut the loaf in half, cut off a slice, and then tightly connect the remaining halves.

Bread baked at home is not packaged until it has cooled completely.

Stale bread can be refreshed by sprinkling it with water and placing it in a preheated oven for 1-3 minutes. But after cooling, such bread will become completely stale.

A steam bath will help restore softness to bread. Dried bread is placed in a colander, which is placed on a pot of boiling water. From above it is covered with a lid. After a few minutes, the bread will become soft.

But in order not to suffer with the search for a place where bread is best stored, it must be bought in moderation. Fortunately, not a hungry year!