Tesco chairman's admission that he keeps bread in the fridge sparks fierce debate

Tesco chairman John Allan appeared on BBC's Sunday Morning programme where he discussed the rise in food costs and reducing food waste but has ended up sparking an online debate as to whether bread belongs in the fridge.

In an interview with presenter Sophie Raworth, the topic of reducing food waste in households came up where Allan hinted at the possibility of Tesco getting rid of sell-by dates in the future.

Raworth then asked Allan whether he eats bread past the sell-by date, to which the supermarket boss said he does and believes “many other people do”.

“There is a re-appraisal going on at the moment about whether sell-by or eat-by dates are over conservative, and I think that’s going to change in the years ahead.

“Quite a lot of those dates will come off," he added.

Allan then revealed where he keeps his bread and continued: “I know I can keep bread in the fridge for quite a long time beyond its official life and I think savvy customers realise that as well.”

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The chairman also said that food waste at home is "much greater" than food waste in Tesco stores.

"Although we've been working relentlessly to eliminate the greatest possible extent the food that's wasted in our shop, or in our distribution chain, actually people waster far more food at home."

He added: "I think one of the things we have to do is to help shoppers realise that there are ways in which they can have less food waste at home.”

Of course, people were stuck on the fact that Allan said he keeps his bread in the fridge to keep it fresh, and had plenty to say about this on Twitter.

Some couldn't quite believe what they were hearing.

While others admitted to keeping their bread in the fridge:

So... should bread be kept in the fridge?

Well, according to Good House Keeping, your loaf of bread should avoid the cool temperatures.

"Never keep your bread in the fridge. The starch molecules in bread recrystallize very quickly at cool temperatures, and causes the bread to stale much faster when refrigerated."

They added that "loaves should be kept in an air-tight plastic bag at room temperature rather than in the fridge," and bread boxes are great if you want to store bread for a few days.

Elsewhere, the current matter of rising food prices was also discussed in the interview, as the supermarket boss warned "the worst is yet to come" for rising food prices.

"I think the combination of increasing energy prices, the impact of National Insurance increases [in April] on people's incomes, and to a much much lesser extent increasing food prices, is going to squeeze the hardest-up still harder," he said and believes food prices are most likely to rise by 5 per cent as a result.

“It troubles us and I’m sure troubles many people that people may have to struggle to choose between heating their homes and feeding their families.

“That’s clearly not a situation any of us should tolerate," Allan said.

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