The Colored Twist Ties on Bread Are Actually Code for When It Was Delivered

Grocery stores are mysterious places. Sometimes they line their shelves with attractive photos of food (and not actual food) as a placeholder as they renovate — a pretty sick joke if you ask me.

Other times, grocery stores say they are marking down items, but raise the price instead.

And now we have word that there's a secret color-coding twist-tie system for the bread. One woman took to TikTok to discuss this intel she was let in on, but it sparked a debate as not everyone believed this system was legit.

Do you examine the colored twist ties on your bread packaging when you're at the store? Truthfully, I never thought to look. But as of late, one TikToker has me doing a double take.

Creator @ztheeunicorn recently posted a video on the platform where she shared some fascinating information she had learned while grocery shopping.

"I don't know if y'all knew this but I was today years old when a lovely woman taught me in the grocery store that the twist ties are codes for the different days that bread was delivered," she said in her video, filmed right in the bread aisle.

"White is delivered on Friday. Green is delivered on I forget, but yellow is delivered on Saturdays and today is Sunday so I'm getting me a yellow twist tie bread," @ztheeunicorn said as the clip ended.

There were mixed reactions to @ztheeunicorn's video. A few people were grateful she shared this little secret with them. "Saving this!!" opined one user in the comment section. Another wrote: "Thank you for your service."

Meanwhile, a few other users claimed that they had been sitting on that knowledge for some time.

"Been knowing this ever since I could remember," read one comment.

"Yup. A woman told me this in the store too," projected another.

A third comment read: "My dad worked as the bread delivery man and he taught me this at my big age."

However, a large portion of folks were skeptical of the information @ztheeunicorn shared. Many claimed that if you wanted the freshest bread, you could just look at the expiration date on all the packages. They also pointed out that the colors may tell you what day the bread was delivered, but it doesn't necessarily specify if the bread is from the current week or the week before. It could be last week's bread.

One user let in a little secret that could be helpful: "I used to deliver bread! Just get the one on the very bottom! That’s the freshest bc we knw people don’t wanna bend down for it."

According to Wise Bread, the twist-tie color coding system is legit. However, it wasn't created to help customers choose the freshest bread. Instead, it was designed to help the store employees quickly identify which loaves to swap with fresher bread, so there's constant turnover in the bread available to buy.

Furthermore, the twist ties colors are usually in alphabetical order to help employers easily remember which color represents which day. Here's how it works:

• Blue twist ties mean the bread was delivered on a Monday.
• Green twist ties mean the bread was delivered on a Tuesday.
• Red twist ties mean the bread was delivered on a Thursday.
• White twist ties mean the bread was delivered on a Friday.
• Yellow twist ties mean the bread was delivered on a Saturday.

It's not clear if every grocery store follows this system, but it's a good thing to know if you're looking for the freshest bread possible. Just remember to check the expiration date on the bread before you buy it, just in case it was last Saturday's bread and not this Saturday's bread.