According to the full page ad taken out to announce its arrival, the sliced loaf was “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped”.
On July 6, 1928, in the small US town of Chillicothe, Missouri, the local newspaper broke the story on the front - and carried the advertisement on the back - of its eight page edition.
From the following morning the Chillicothe Baking Company would be selling pre-sliced bread at quality grocers in the area, thanks to a powerful multi-bladed machine called the Rohwedder Bread Slicer.
On the front page - alongside period tales of Indians and flying aces - The Constitution-Tribune carried the story down a full column: “Sliced bread is made here - Chillicothe Baking Co. the first bakers in the world to sell this product to the public”.
The paper reported: “The idea of sliced bread may be startling to some people.
“Certainly it represents a definite departure from the usual manner of supplying the consumer with bakers loaves.
“As one considers this new service one cannot help but be won over to a realization of the fact that here indeed is a type of service which is sound, sensible and in every way a progressive refinement in Bakers bread service.
“The slices stack perfectly, they are ideal for the making of neat, dainty sandwiches. For toasting purposes they are unexcelled.”
Sliced bread would go on to become a household staple and enter the language as a superlative praising an invention or breakthrough that has had a real impact on our daily lives.
But at the time the bakery even published four-step instructions on how to use the new product, starting from opening – not tearing - the wrapper to removing the pins holding the slices together and folding the packaging back down to preserve freshness.
The bread slicer that made it all possible was invented by Iowa man Otto Rohwedder who built his first prototype in 1917 but it was not put into commercial use until 1928 when the Chillicothe Baking Co. took it on.
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