Before you take a bite on your favorite slice of bread which is wafting out with freshness and oven-baked aroma, have you ever wondered how that bread is made?

Consumers are always on the look-out for safe and quality products, they want nothing but the best. Bread is considered as one of the staple food products in country, and it is vital for consumers to look into aspects that can assure for its quality and safety attributes. Here are some questions one should ask before choosing your brand of bread to get the best value for your money.

Does it have the qualities of good bread? When consumers go to neighborhood bakery or supermarket to buy breads, they always look for new stocks or freshly delivered breads. In doing such, don’t look for the expiry date but check on the day it was baked or delivered. Breads have different shelf lives, three, five or seven days, sometimes even 10 to 14 days. A bread expiring in 5 days may actually be 5 days old already if its best before date is 10 days. Other important attributes your choice of bread must have are softness, freshly-baked aroma, great taste and nutritive value.

Are the ingredients used of the finest quality? Aside from checking the label of the product’s packaging, consumers should also be assured that the ingredients used are being sourced from the best suppliers all over the world to ensure the best outcome product. If products have low prices, check if the ingredients are also of low priced-low quality. Be sure you get the right value you pay for.

Have you seen the actual making of your breads? Aside from knowing the ingredients, one should be aware on how the bread is being made—and that can only be done by seeing the actual production process. Consumers have higher confidence with restaurants or establishment that allow them to see how the food they eat is made, examples of which are Gardenia Bakeries, French Baker and Krispy Kreme. Ask that you be allowed to see the bakery or bread plant and here are some things to check out: the attire and habits of the workers, they should exhibit cleanliness and they should properly wear their headcover and the face mask covering both nose and mouth; the equipment, baking pans and other utensils, it should always be clean; and floors of the production area especially the hidden corners, it should be hygienic and clean. And if the whole process is untouched by human hand, that’s better so you need not worry where the perspiration goes.

Aside from seeing the actual production, consumers might as well be vigilant to check trays and trucks used in transporting the product. Check if the trays are clean and sanitized before each use. Delivery vehicles must be free from pest and insects and the insides of delivery trucks must not be made of wood to avoid wood splinters contaminating the bread or walls harboring insects. With these, consumers are assured of safety from production to distribution.

Is the manufacturer ISO and HACCP certified? International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) certifications provide the assurance that a food manufacturer is following the highest standards for food quality and safety. With ISO certification, products are made following the highest and most comprehensive standards for quality and efficiency—from design, development, and manufacturing down to distribution. With HACCP certification, consumers are assured that the product is produced in a hygienic, clean and pest-free environment and comes to you free from any biological, chemical and physical hazard or contaminant. The next time you buy bread products, choose the one with the ISO and HACCP seals in the packaging like Gardenia.

If your answers to the above questions are reverberating YES, then undoubtedly make it your brand of bread. Good news to all consumers, there is a brand of bread available in the market that offers all of the above. It has the qualities of good bread that consumers look for, it pulls out unsold breads every day of delivery to let consumers enjoy fresh stocks, it utilizes only the superior and finest ingredients sourced from the best suppliers all over the world, its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility is accommodating plant tour visitors to exhibit the actual bread production which is untouched by human hands and it is the only bread company that is ISO and HACCP certified. That is Gardenia bread.

Gardenia delights consumers with great-tasting, high quality and safety bread products from its Gardenia Classic White Bread to its wide array of flavor loaves that are available in supermarkets and stores nationwide. Gardenia’s objective is to provide best quality products to all, nothing less.