Why?

This small crust of bread is from a 400g loaf of wholemeal bread with a best before (or use by or whatever) date of 9th May.

Now, it hasn't been stored in the freezer and has mainly been kept out in the kitchen albeit in its plastic bread bag secured with a peg, but kept in fridge for the past week or thereabouts.

So why isn't it mouldy? What the hell have they added to this bread to stop it going off?

Aha! Looking at the ingredients it appears to contain calcium propionate ("added to inhibit mould growth") in addition to a string of E numbers (481, 472e & 471). Apparently it only contains 57% wholemeal flour, the remainder being made up of a further 12 ingredients!

I certainly don't fancy eating it - although in fairness I did eat the rest if it...albeit some weeks ago! And now I even feel guilty giving it to the birds in the garden.

I reckon I will stick to homemade bread in future.

P.S. Mr A and I spent some time this afternoon looking up anything to do with MSG, after having a delicious Chinese takeaway last night that kept us up half the night dying of thirst! It would seem that MSG is now added to just about everything including vaccines and vitamin supplements! And there was me thinking it was the salt that was causing my thirst and headaches, so have been choosing lo-salt stock cubes and bouillon powder, when in fact it would seem to be MSG. Do you know, they even add it to sports recovery drinks...?