[syntheweave]

It's a combination of things. The "Pullman Loaf" (as in Pullman railcars) became common for sandwich breads in the 19th century and established a common target for what bread should look like in the US and UK - white, sweet, fluffy, thin crust.

Later, we were successfully marketed "Wonder Bread" as a clean(as in sanitary) and convenient product, and that set another standard, one sold to housewives. It was basically applying the same strategy that built McDonald's in its early years. At the time of Wonder Bread's introduction, many adults could still recall when products were being sold "from the cracker barrel", mixed homogenously and exposed to pests. All the early packaged foods, including the canned stuff and the sliced bread, were establishing a new norm of the manufacturer guaranteeing freshness to a sell-by date. It was PB&J on sliced bread for lunch and macaroni and cheese for dinner that got a lot of the US through the Depression years.

Continental Europe was simply less interested in this genre of bread - they had competition from other varieties of grain, and different kinds of bread dishes.

[noir_lord]

What we think of as bread in the UK is different though - vast majority of bread sold in the UK is made with the Chorleywood method[1]

Mostly as a result of high quality wheat depending on imports vs the varieties we grew at the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process

[thaumasiotes]

> At the time of Wonder Bread's introduction, many adults could still recall when products were being sold "from the cracker barrel", mixed homogenously and exposed to pests.

I cannot remember this. (And wasn't around for the introduction of Wonder Bread.)

But I was disturbed to see recent commentary saying "why in the world does food come inside so much disposable packaging?"

That answer should be obvious to everyone. Modern food comes inside disposable packaging because the other way spreads disease. You could argue that we should have less of that, or more of it. But if you can't even imagine why the shrinkwrap is there... how do you get through the day?

[dTal]

>many adults could still recall when products were being sold "from the cracker barrel"

What does this mean? It's impossible to Google, thanks to the restaurant chain by the same name.

[InCityDreams]

Samuel Motherfucking L motherfucking Jackson enters the Motherfucking chat.