Storage of Baked Breads

Breads

Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water with additional ingredients. Bread is the stape food in Europe, North America, North Africa and also in Middle East. It has different varieties based on the flour used. Mainly the dough is made from wheat flour but sometimes breads are made also using maize flour, oats usually in combination with wheat flour. The dough is baked in the oven after the addition of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae).

Types of Breads

• White Bread - made from flour containing only the central core of the grain-wheat (white part)
• Brown Bread - made with central grain but also 10% bran (brown part). Sometimes brown colouring is added with caramel colouring to make the white bread brown.
• Wholemeal Bread - made from both the white and grey part of the grain (endosperm and bran).
• Wheat germ - It has the wheat germ for flavouring
• Whole-grain Bread - white bread with whole grain on it
• Roti - Bread eaten in South Asia (Chapatti, Naan etc.,)
• Flat Bread - simple bread made with flour, water and salt, made without yeast or sourdough culture.

For more information on different types of breads refer wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_breads

Process of Bread Making

Bread making process differs with regards to the type of bread and region. Basic bread making process has 12 important steps 

1. Scaling
2. Mixing or Kneading
3. Fermentation or Rising
4. Punching
5. Scaling the dough or Dividing
6. Rounding
7. Benching
8. Makeup and Panning
9. Proofing
10. Baking
11. Cooling
12. Serving or Storing

Video below from How it's made explains clearly the process of bread making in industries.

Storage

Our discussion is mainly about the storage process of the baked breads after purchasing from shops. Breads cannot be usually stored in cold temperatures like other food products to preserve them for a longer period of time unless it is stored in frozen state. Also bread in the refrigerator is one of the bad options, though it can save bread from molding it can make bread to accumulate moisture. To the maximum breads can be stored for 3 to 4 days but still the freshness of the bread is lost even in this 3 to 4 days. More than 4 days breads will undergo molding when stored in ordinary containers.

There are several differents methods have been used since long time back to store cooked breads. To store breads for few days some options are to allow the bread to stay in room temperature to protect the freshness but also protect them from molds. So we can protect breads for few days by 

• Keeping bread in air tight bags for short term storage away from sunlight in room temperature
• Keeping artisinal breads in paper bags
• Protecting the sliced part of the bread by wrapping in aluminium foil
• Leaving artisinal breads in open

For a long term storage of breads for a period of 3 months, freezing the bread is one of the best options. Frozen bread can be reused by heating it in oven.

For more information go to: http://www.wikihow.com/Store-Bread

and watch the video about storage of breads below

We are currently researching for solutions to keep breads away from molding in room temperature storage for more than 3 or 4 days. 

Please share your views if you have some other methods of bread storage. We always welcome your ideas.

References

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_breads
3. http://aliceqfoodie.blogspot.fr/2006/10/12-steps-of-bread-baking.html
4. http://www.wikihow.com/Store-Bread
5. http://www.uaf.edu/ces/hhfd/faq/#freshbred