Keeping Bread In Refrigerator Makes It Stale Faster

Why do you keep bread in the refrigerator? To preserve it? Well, this may come as a shock to a lot of people because I have seen many keep their breads in the refrigerator.

I know people that will keep anything that is left over in the refrigerator, including bread. They just microwave the bread whenever they want to eat it again. Some would even microwave the bread with the nylon wrap, not knowing this may pose some danger to their health. Of course, this can help the bread get back to near its initial form but microwaving food in that nylon may not be too safe; well, unless clearly marked “safe for microwaving”.

What Causes Bread Staling?

Bread actually starts becoming stale almost immediately it comes out of the baking oven. To fully understand how bread become stale, one has to describe what happens during bread baking.

During baking of bread, the starch molecules in the raw bread dough begin to for a gel-like structure (gelatinization), they absorb moisture, swell, and then become semi-firm. Immediately the bread is removed from the oven, the process starts to reverse itself, a process know as retrogradation. The starch molecules begin to “dry out” or crystallize and harden again.

So How Is Refrigeration Implicated In Staling of Bread?

You may be wondering, why do fruits, vegetables and many other foods keep longer and breads become stale easily in the fridge. Well, the answer is not far fetched, that would be the last statement in this article.

There are so many research and finding about staling of bread. Although some don’t quite understand or clearly explain the real process, one thing is sure. The one thing that is sure is that the cause of the staleness is the same — water molecules detach themselves from the starch molecules and the starch molecules begin to take their original shape before oven baking and harden again.

Findings have shown that refrigeration accelerates staling of bread. Interestingly, the rate at which bread becomes stale could be made six (6) times faster by keeping it in the refrigerator. If you don’t have a microwave oven, don’t keep your bread in the fridge and for those that want to use microwave, note that bread can get to a point microwave won’t be able to help.

Finally, to the answer posed about why fruits, vegetables and many other foods keep longer in the fridge. The answer to this is that, unlike bread, fruits and vegetables need their moisture removed to keep longer while this makes bread stale.

ALSO SEE: 4 Foods You Should Not Keep In The Freezer