What Are Americans Eating?

The tale of white bread 🍞 A Show and Tell Kind of Story 👀

This is more than day-old bread.

As most of you are aware, I have been in North Carolina with my son, Greg. We returned home after a month of intense cancer treatment at Duke University's Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center.

Yesterday afternoon during one of many phone conversations with Suzi Parker, I noticed an unopened loaf of bread on my kitchen table.

Honestly, I do not remember buying the bread. It just kind of appeared, I guess 😅.

Anyway, I took a look at the date stamped on the unopened bag and noticed something odd. I could not see any mold on the near month old loaf of white bread. Is the packaging that good? I don't think so, at least not good enough to keep the bread from molding.

Have a look for yourself at the way the bread sack, as we call them around here, is sealed up.

Come along with me as I open this loaf up. After this video, I'm going to turn it over to Suzi to finish this off. Team work here at the Reckoning. I'm talking to you on the video, folks, while she is researching the ingredients listed on this magic loaf in hopes of finding a clue as to why this bread is not a blueish gray bag of mold.

Suzi, you're up. Finish this off with details about some of these ingredients

Never fear, Suzi Parker is here!

I've put on my science lab coat and goggles to get to the bottom of this bread that is 29 days beyond its best-buy date. We have no idea what these ingredients are or how much is in the bread. Disclaimer: I'm not a scientist but I can do some badass investigating.

Wtf is “Calcium Propionate (To Retard Spoliage)?

According to a study by the National Institutes of Health, “Calcium propionate (CP) is commonly used in bread as an antifungal agent. Alternatively, sourdough can be used as a natural preservative.”

It's also known as “E282.”

This 2012 study is entitled, “The effect of sourdough and calcium propionate on the microbial shelf-life of salt reduced bread.”

“The addition of sourdough with antifungal activity prolonged the shelf-life to 12-14 days whereas the addition of 0.3 % calcium propionate prolonged the shelf-life to 10-12 days only,” the study noted.

Okay. Is this mysterious bread-saving ingredient thing called calcium propionate safe?

Let's jump to Bakerpedia.

“Calcium propionate, or cal pro, is a highly popular preservative that gives an impressive shelf life to bread products. Since the 1930s, bakeries have been using it to stop outbreaks of ropy bacteria.”

The 1930s?!

Bakerpedia states: “Calcium propionate is formed by neutralizing propionic acid with calcium hydroxide.”

So it's synthetic. Made in a lab. There are labs all over world that make commercial calcium propionate. China included.

From Healthline:

If this makes you feel any better: “Calcium propionate has been approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), World Health Organization (WHO), and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).”

FDA approved calcium propionate in 1979.

It's used to prevent product waste and, according to one study “to mitigate a costly issue in the baking industry: mold and bacterial growth.”

To make a company more money. In my humble opinion.

But is it really safe? Some reports say sensitive people may get headaches migraines, and/or gastric issues caused by calcium propionate. Some studies show that it may increase levels of hormones linked to obesity and diabetes.

Get this. In 2012, the Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health found calcium propionate could cause “irritability, restlessness, inattention and sleep disturbance in some children.” 

And in 2018 this happened! McDonald's stepped in and said “no” to calcium propionate.

There's a lot of research out there about calcium propionate. I don't have a grant to spend all day investigating it, but as a friend wondered when I told her what I was researching: Will this stuff preserve us, too?