Cooking for one person can be tough. You inevitably make too much food, say you're going to take some for lunch tomorrow, then proceed to attempt to freeze 45 portions of pasta with pesto and marinate in regret. But now there's hope for eaters — specifically toast-lovers — of the single persuasion. Bread for single people is now a thing because storing bread in the freezer is just too hard, apparently. The line of bread loaves is called Simply Small — and it's designed with single folk (or anyone living in a single-person household) in mind.
While I slightly resent the implication that I shouldn't eat an entire loaf of bread in one sitting, there are definitely some people who will appreciate Simply Small, a line of bread from Arnold, Brownberry and Oroweat Bread, ready to meet your solo needs. With 10 slices per loaf, it aims at cutting down food waste — in other words, making sure you can eat it all before it starts to get moldy. You can find Honey Oat and White with Whole Milk options, which are currently on sale on the East and West coasts with a suggested retail price of $2.49.
“As one of the largest bread brands in the country, we feel a responsibility to meet our consumers’ needs, regardless of life stage or household size. We are very excited to finally be able to cater towards the growing single-person household demographic,” Diana Kattan, Associate Brand Manager of Arnold, Brownberry, and Oroweat Bread explained in a press release. “We’re hopeful that our new Simply Small product line not only brings consumers back to the bread aisle, but helps to alleviate some of the waste in today’s food industry.”
I'm not sure I totally buy the idea that we need small loaves of bread because putting it in the freezer affects the quality — I've been eating freezer bread my whole life and I am proud of it. Still, it's nice to be seeing more food options targeted for single people or those who live alone, particularly because there is such a demand for this kind of product — per the Census, only 13% of households were single households in 1960, versus a whopping 28% in 2018. That's 35.7 million people who may or may not be concerned about the longevity of their bread.
There are plenty of meals you can make for one person — hell, you can even make yourself a delicious crepe for one or a red velvet cake for one. But sometimes, you just don't want to cook. Or go out. You just want chocolate-filled Belgian waffles you can keep in the freezer and take out at your leisure or a tub full of chocolate chip cookie dough you can eat on your own without getting poisoned. And all of these things are a reality — deliciously ready to make a single person's life so much better. And yes, maybe bread for one falls into that category.
Food waste is an ongoing problem globally, but there are ways you can help prevent it. Simply Small loaves seem to be trying to take up space in that mission with these tailored options. Only time will tell how successful that will be — that said, if you can't eat ten slices of bread before mold starts to form, then you and I are very different people indeed.
