Why do they use two plastic bags for loaves of bread?

The bread I buy only has 1 bag.

Dunno if it’s related, but there are sometimes problems with people opening a loaf in the store, nomming a few slices, and packing it back up. The second bag would let you know.

I think I know what @ETpro is talking about. Some breads… I can’t remember the brand, is wrapped inside the plastic bag. Is that what you mean?

Very few brands I can think of have two. Most have one I think. Maybe if it is shipped farther distances they use the inner bag because it has a better seal, so the bread stays fresh longer? Just guessing.

one I’m thinking of has a white bag, very thinly sliced, sort of dense bread… I seem to remember the words “Brick Oven” somewhere, possibly something to do with “Arnold”, and it’s wrapped in plastic inside the bread bag. Also, there was one company that used to wrap their raisin bread in plastic inside the bag, and that bread was also a little more dense and thinly sliced. My guess is that this bread is more likely to dry out faster, so they double wrap it to be sure.

The ones in two bags tend to be the more expensive, higher end bread. Could just be some sort of silly status thing. I don’t know.

@poofandmook May have a good point. Maybe the higher end breads have different properties than the cheap stuff I buy!

Hmmm. This made me think. Since Arnold bread was mentioned, I wonder if it might have to do with being kosher. Making sure the item does not get handled in an unkosher way since it is in markets that are not kosher. Still just guessing.

I think it is a marketing ploy. Mitch Hedberg had a great joke about not needing another step between him and toast.

I’ve had a few loaves that were packaged like that. It’s just annoying!!

I know of several brands that double bag. They typically are loaves with less smooth crusts or more delicate texture.

The purpose of the double bags is to hold the bread tightly to prevent or hinder the separation of crust from crumb.

Double bagging is also helpful if you are planning to freeze the bread (Carbohydrate- blasphemy IMO)as it helps to prevent freezer burn.

Cinnamon – Raisin is packed like that . Doesn’t bother me as long as I have a toaster and stick of butter close.

you must be choosing a loaf of trendy wheat bread. when it’s trendy and healthy and chock full of sticks and nuts and stuff, the manufacturer goes that extra step to ensure your wood log stays fresh and moist.

its just another fold in eating right that makes “eating right” more expensive than just eating whatever. it costs more to eat right. the extra packaging is a privilege, hence the extra plastic.

Freshness!

Thanks guys for all the guesses. @Nullo has a great point. The inner bag is heat sealed together and you can’t open it without it being obvious it has been tampered with. And yes, this applies mostly to whole grain breads, cinnamon bread, raisin bread and the like.

I buy my bread at “Our Daily Bread,” where it is baked fresh every day. I use my own cloth bags.

@charliecompany34 “Sticks and nuts and stuff”? ROFL!!!!

@ETpro…Who would want to tamper with BREAD??

@Val123: Hungry [hungry hippos] people.

@poofandmook Sheesh!

@Val123 http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Product_tampering.aspx

Ok, I bought some bread yesterday and it is double bagged, and it is one of those whole grain type breads that might dry out easier as suggested above, and I guess it might be considered a “better” brand although I don’t think it is that great lol. The company is in PA, so I am assuming that means it is made there, because it doesn’t mention a local bakery, and I don’t see a P, or a K, or a U, so it doesn’t look like it is kosher. I think because it seems that it has to travel a long distance instead of having a local bakery like Wonderbread or Sunbeam most likely would, that it ships better with the tightly sealed packaging surrounding the bread, and then the advertising is on the outer bag. However, the same brand has only one tightly sealed bag on their rye bread, and no outer bag. Maybe because of the shape of the bread?? Here is their link http://www.oroweat.com/Products/List.aspx?nCategoryID=50&nSubCategoryID=222 maybe it says something about the packaging, but I didn’t notice anything when I glanced through the site.

@ETpro Thanks for the link. But it referred to product tampering which is ”....the deliberate contamination of goods after they have been manufactured. It is often done to alarm consumers or to blackmail a company.”
That’s not the case here. No nut case is coming in and opening bags of MnM’s and painting them with polyurethane! Besides, shellac is an ingredient found naturally in the secretions of a shellac but, or something.

What would Kosher bread be like, @JLeslie?

@Val123 From wiki:
“Reasons for food being non-kosher include the presence of ingredients derived from non-kosher animals or from kosher animals that were not properly slaughtered, a mixture of meat and milk, wine or grape juice (or their derivatives) produced without supervision, the use of produce from Israel that has not been tithed, or even the use of cooking utensils and machinery which had previously been used for non-kosher food. These might include utensils and machines used for making pork or other non-kosher foods.”

@Nullo Thank you. Although I had to cut and paste it into my response box before the tiny AND italicized print gave me a headache! So….like, non kosher bread might have been made from non-kosher eggs and milk? Like that?

@Val123 Kosher bread would be the same as non-kosher, just the kitchen would meet “kosher standards” and had been blessed/approved by a Rabbi. Lots of the packaged products you eat and drink are kosher you just don’t know to look for it. If it has a small K, P, or U kosher. I just glanced at three products in my pantry all kosher, Sunmaid raisins, Townhouse Flip Crackers, and Quaker Oats instant Oatmeal.

Kosher means you cannot have meat and dairy together, you cannot even use the same plates or cooking pans for meat as you do for dairy, even though you wash them in-between. You would literally need seperate dishwashers if you cooked both in the same kitchen if you really do it the right way. And no shellfish allowed and no pork.

The P stands for Pareve, and it is neutral, so there is no dairy or meet in those items, so you can put that food with either meat or dairy.

@JLeslie Wow! Thanks…you seem very knowledgeable. Are you Jewish? If so, how important is Kosher to you?

@Val123 Yes, I’m Jewish, but kosher means nothing to me. For people who want dairy free or meat free the kosher/pareve label can be helpful also.

Were you born Jewish, or did you study to become one?

@Val123 Born a Jew, never religious. My parents are Atheist Jews and so am I. We did holidays with the extended family, that’s about it.

@Val123 It may be back before your time but years ago there was a famous tampering case in which some nut put poison in aspirin bottles and a number of people died. I think his intent was to get even with a pharmacy chain he felt had wronged him. Ever since that incident, lots of products have moved to tamper-proof packaging so that end consumers can see if someone has opened the package inside the store, regardless of why the opening.

@ETpro I believe you are thinking of Tylenol.

@ETpro That sounds like the Chicago Tylenol Murders. Johnson&Johnson’s response has literally become a textbook example of crisis management.
It was pretty impressive. Mass recalls (basically dumping all Johnson&Johnson products off the shelves), a halt to all production, a massive internal investigation, willing collaboration with the authorities, the advances in packaging… it was as close to epic as public relations can get.

I was around when that Tylenol scare happened. It’s the reason we have tamper resistant stuff on everything now. My understanding was someone was trying to target one person, like their wife or something, but put it in a bunch of bottles thinking they couldn’t trace it back to him….

@JLeslie & @Nullo Yes, exactly. The Tylenol murders. Thanks.

@Val123 Your note led me to go back and look it up. In fact, suspicion first went to James W. Lewis who sent Johnson and Johnson a letter demanding $1 million to stop the poisonings. It later turned out he was not the culprit, but he was separately charged with extortion and served 13 years of a 20 year sentence.

The next suspect was Roger Arnold. He was investigated but cleared. However the media attention during the investigation led him to a nervous breakdown. He became convinced that a bra owner named Marty Sinclair had cast suspicion on him. In 1983, he shot and killed John Stanisha after having mistaken him for Sinclair. Arnold was convicted of second degree murder and served 15 years of a 30 year sentence. Arnold died in 2008.

No actual perpetrator was ever identified. There were a flurry of copycat attacks targeting both Tylenol and other products, and these eventually led to the widespread adoption of tamper-proof packaging.

@ETpro Thanks! I remember the panic it caused though…..pretty scary stuff.