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Otto Fredrick Rohwedder invented a bread-slicing machine in 1928, increasing bread consumption and popularizing spreads like peanut butter and jam. The US briefly banned sliced bread in 1943, but lifted it due to public outcry. The invention was a major step forward in the baking industry and led to the idiom “the nicest thing since sliced bread.” Wonder Bread was one of the first companies to sell pre-sliced bread nationwide.
In 1928, Otto Fredrick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa invented a machine that would change life in America forever. Rohwedder created a multi-knife machine that sliced bread evenly before it was packaged for sale. Soon, people began eating more bread, more often, triggering an increase in the consumption of various spreads, such as peanut butter and jam, except during a three-month period in 1943, when US officials decided to ban the sliced bread as a World War II conservation measure. Claude R. Wickard, the secretary of agriculture and head of the War Foods Administration, made the decision on sliced bread, but no one knew why. However, when it became clear that supplies of wax paper, steel and grain weren’t affected – and after significant public outcry – the ban was lifted.
An Essential Food, No Matter How You Slice It:
The introduction of bread slicers into the bread making process has been called “the biggest step forward in the baking industry since bread was wrapped”. This led to the idiom: “the nicest thing since sliced bread”.
The first commercial use of Rohwedder’s slicer was by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri, which sold its first slices on July 7, 1928.
In the 1930s, Wonder Bread became one of the first companies to sell pre-sliced bread nationwide, greatly increasing its popularity.
