The packets of Coles ciabatta and sourdough breads always have a “best before” date for the day after they are sold, however the breads can be successfully stored for much longer than that.
I just ate the last 2 slices of a loaf of Coles Finest sourdough I bought on 31.07.2018 which had a “best before” date of 01.08.2018 simply by storing it in the fridge.
When we buy a loaf of their ciabatta to eat with soups, stews or pasta bolognaise, I ask the Coles bakery staff for a frozen loaf instead of getting the finished product off the shelf.
We allow it to thaw sufficiently enough to be able to slice what we need and put the remainder back in the freezer where we have stored some loaves successfully for many months.
As these breads need to be toasted in order to be able to eat them, (horses excluded), the refrigeration or freezing does not impact on the quality.
And when paying $4.00 to $5.50 per loaf, one certainly does not want to be wasting them.
We too normally freeze all bread that we buy. If the bread is not sliced, we slice it as soon as we get home and then freeze it. That way we can take out what we need without thawing it all.
Amazingly, the thawed bread tastes as fresh as the day we bought it.
This means that we can buy multiple loaves of bread when it is marked down, and use it as needed. Bargain!
We freeze some of our bread too, however it is always just that bit less an experience than you get with a genuine fresh loaf from the oven. Short aroma and that warm sponginess. We use our locally owned bakery as first choice and not the big chains or super rmarkets.
Most Supermarket bakery products anyway, are either shipped prebaked and frozen or baked on site from pre-processed and proven dough, sometimes even imported from the EU. It’s no surprise that it can be refrozen successfully.
Other than a trip to Europe it might be worth locating genuine local bakeries that produce their own fresh sour dough or ciabatta loaves. We’ve never needed to resort to toasting either fresh product to make them paletteable, although once they are a day or two old it is a good way to use them stale or for bread crumbs.
Some were in the past and I recall Coles being caught out. The ACCC action and new labelling laws should hopefully prevent similar deceitfulness on the future.
I understand that most standard bread loaves are mixed (dry and wet ingredients), proofed and baked in stores which have baking ovens. I am not sure if the same applies to the more niche breads.
Where did you find the history of supermarket bakery products? Why would being frozen at some point of their existence make any difference to the success of re-freezing later on?
Refer to Coles own words per link attached.
No untruths. Just carefully constructed independent facts.
Coles do use frozen dough, source not attributed and parbake a range of product.
Coles only clearly attribute baking and finishing some products at those stores that have “in store bakeries”. The sentence stating the dough is prepared by Coles bakers omits the location used. The actual dough preparation statement precedes attribution of the baking to the in store bakery locations.
Not all Coles stores have active bakeries. Not all Coles bread is batched in store. @fred123 even claims to buy some bread over the counter that is still frozen.
Personal observations of actual store bakery areas have left me confused as to whether they are in regular use for 100% flour to baked bead production or lesser activities.
P.s. I was aware of the previous ACCC action over fresh baked being improperly used as well improper labeling and marketing. Happy to dig a hole here if it is what is needed to avoid everyone reading that all store bread in the big super markets is baked in store or even batched in the same state. And point out that it may not be that obvious which products are!
No history, just observation.
Second point was a bit ‘tongue in cheek’, although some of us no doubt do so. Hence the logic! Once thawed most recommendations are that product should not be refrozen.
