This day in baking history…

The sale of sliced bread was banned by the United States Secretary of Agriculture on this day, January 18, 1943. The reason: World War II. At the time grain was considered an essential resource, critical to the war effort. Since sliced bread stales more quickly than unsliced bread, banning sliced bread helped curtail waste. Or so the thinking went. The ban was lifted at the close of the war in 1945.