Date of expiry not over - So how come bread goes bad so fast?
By Zaihan Mohamed Yusof
January 06, 2008
SHE ate the bread without knowing it was bad before she rushed to work on 27 Dec.
Mrs Tan showed slices of the mouldy bread to The New Paper, together with the tag which indicated the expiry date was 29 Dec. --Picture: Zaihan Mohamed Yusof
It was only when her maid called her about the mouldy bread later in the morning that Mrs J Tan realised what she had eaten.
Mrs Tan, 40, a manager, said she 'blew her top'.
What was puzzling was the expiry tag indicated that the wholemeal bread was still good to eat.
Said Mrs Tan in an interview at her Bukit Panjang flat: 'I was rushing to work, so I didn't notice anything. It (the bread) didn't taste funny or look spoiled. Then I thought there must be a printing error on the expiry tag.'
Mrs Tan showed this reporter the tag which gave the expiry date as 29 Dec.
Said her maid, Ms Manichem, 26, an Indonesian: 'After my employer left for work, I ate two slices of the whole meal bread with butter. I finished both slices and felt it tasted a little sour.
'When I looked at the rest of the loaf, I was shocked to find it was all mouldy.'
Mrs Tan said she had bought the loaf of bread from a confectionery at Bukit Panjang on 26 Dec, for $1.70.
The wholemeal bread made by the Johor-based Hawaii Bakery & Food Industries (M) Sdn Bhd was cheap compared with others priced at about $2.50.
She added that she had kept the loaf away from direct sunlight and it remained sealed in the plastic bag.
She returned it to the confectionery and made a complaint.
A check with the confectionery, Kaori, showed that last month, Mrs Tan was the second person who had complained of bad bread.
The other complainant was an elderly man.
The shop manager, who declined to be named, said: 'The old man returned with the bread and we replaced it with a new one.
'We found out that the old man had bought the bread near its expiry date. As for the woman, we have no idea why her bread had become bad even when it was within the safe period.'
His supply of about 30 loaves comes from the Singapore supplier of Hawaii Bakery once every two days.
Older loaves are taken back by the supplier, he said.
The distributor of Hawaii Bakery, who took over the distributorship on Tuesday, said bread going bad is common.
Said distributor Chris Ong: 'It's normally a handling problem. Sometimes, especially if the bread is handled poorly, it will 'sweat'.
'Exposure to direct sunlight will cause moisture to form, making the bread soggy. After that, mould will form easily.'
Hawaii Bakery supplies confectioneries and shops in Singapore with about 1,000 loaves of bread every day.
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...52571,00.html? 
Date of expiry not over - So how come bread goes bad so fast? 
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