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Break from the Grind September 11, 2017
TRIVIAL PURSUITS: What do the colors of bread loaf twist ties or plastic tags mean?
I never paid attention to the color of the twist ties on the loaves of bread I buy, until I saw on TV recently that the colors actually mean something?
Reported by PS
What do the colors of bread loaf twist ties or plastic tags mean?
They tell you the day of the week the bread was baked:
- Blue – Monday;
- Green – Tuesday;
- Red – Thursday;
- White – Friday; and
- Yellow – Saturday.
The colors are in alphabetical order for easy remembering. So, if you go to the store on Tuesday, the bread with the blue ties or tags are the freshest.
But, internet sources note that not all bread companies use different colors for ties or tags, so remember the date on the bread is the sell-by and not the throw-out date.
Fact Checker David Mikkelson notes on Snopes.com that the colors provide a quick visual reference to the people whose job it is to recycle the stock by removing older loaves while loading the shelves with fresh product, and bread is supposedly not kept on the shelf for longer than a couple of days, so even without knowing the code, shoppers should never encounter a stale loaf.