ConsumerWatch: Color Code Unlocks Secret To Fresh Bread

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) - A web site that tracks urban legends has confirmed a little-known secret about those colored twist ties and plastic closures on your favorite loaves of bread.

Research done by Snopes.com indicates that the color of the tags and ties tells consumers how fresh the bread is. Commercial bakeries use the different color tags to specify the day of the week the product was baked, according to the Snopes article.

 According to Snopes, the days and corresponding colors are:

Monday - Blue
Tuesday – Green
Thursday – Red
Friday – White
Saturday - Yellow

Wednesday and Sunday aren't included on the list, because bakers traditionally don't bake on those days, according to Snopes. But, some stores get bread deliveries every day, so the system isn't perfect.

If you do buy the logic, an easy way to remember the color code is that the colors appear in alphabetical order.

In addition, some commercial bakers don't use the color system at all. They instead put "sell-by" dates on their bread closure tags.

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