The fireplace where the bread was found is in the middle of this stone structure at the Shubayqa 1 site. (Alexis Pantos photo, News.ku.dk)

World’s oldest bread found at prehistoric site in Jordan

Washington | Reuters — Charred remains of a flatbread baked about 14,500 years ago in a stone fireplace at a site in northeastern Jordan have given researchers a delectable surprise: people began making bread, a vital staple food, millennia before they developed agriculture. No matter how you slice it, the discovery detailed on Monday shows […] Read more

Flour ground from dried crickets and crickets in jars, for the first mass-delivered bread made of insects, are seen at the Finnish food company Fazer bakery in Helsinki, Finland on Nov. 23, 2017. (Photo: Reuters/Attila Cser)

Finnish baker launches bread made from crushed crickets

Helsinki | Reuters — Finnish bakery and food service company Fazer launched on Thursday what it said was the world’s first insect-based bread to be offered to consumers in stores. The bread, made from flour ground from dried crickets as well as wheat flour and seeds, contains more protein than normal wheat bread. Each loaf […] Read more

(Stephen Ausmus photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Major retailers say federal bread pricing probe underway

Major Canadian grocery retailers Metro and Loblaw say a federal investigation is underway concerning the pricing of certain commercial bread products. Toronto-based Loblaw and its parent firm, George Weston Ltd., announced Tuesday they’re aware of an “industry-wide investigation” by the federal Competition Bureau concerning a “price-fixing scheme involving certain packaged bread products.” The two companies […] Read more

Egypt says wheat stocks enough to last until early May

Cairo | Reuters — Egypt’s stock of wheat for its subsidized bread program will last until the first week of May, well into the start of the local harvest, after it bought 180,000 tonnes this week, Supplies Minister Khaled Hanafi said Friday. Hanafi said in a statement he expected new silos to come into use […] Read more