http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20540758

Are there any potential downsides to that?

I can't help thinking the companies would need to seriously adapt their business models if it ever took off!

and you die 3 days later ...

It sounds like irradiation that was pretty much banned in the EU many years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_irradiation

The same health arguments were used then:

However, any radiation that can kill must by it's very nature cause chemical changes in the food. That is how it causes the death. These changes are unknown and potentially toxic or carcinogenic.

The question is "which is least harmful?" - the tiny amount of random toxins produced by irradiation, or the measured amount of known toxins in the food additives?

Or of course, we could all just eat fresh home made food and not worry about it keeping for weeks. Or just eat the damned mould; it's not going to harm you!

I do not worry about mould. I occasionally get sick but rarely anything that confines me to bed for a few days. If people did not get too much food when they shopped that would eliminate the need for additives. Though I am now trying to bake my own bread and it never lasts more than a few days anymore. It gets eaten well before it starts to go stale. The same with vegetables. I use them up before they deteriorate. If I had to choose I would prefer the irradiated food over the additional additives.

No, but it does bring a rather undesirable piquancy to your sandwich.

If I see mould on my bread, I bin it and buy a new loaf.
Health probem solved.
We don't tend to waste that much bread because as a family we get through a loaf before it goes off. I can see how single people have to throw a lot away though.
I would say 'buy a smaller loaf", but they often cost as much, if not more than, a full sized loaf.

If it's really bad then I throw it out for the birds. I think that's happened maybe twice in the last 15 years, and just a crust or two then. The only thing that goes to land-fill is the plastic bag it comes in.

For single people like myself, the invention of domestic refrigeration was a revolution that practically eliminated food waste. A typical sliced loaf will keep fresh for over 2 weeks in the fridge, and for months if frozen.

Fresh baked "proper" bread only keeps a few days before going dry and hard, but it never then goes mouldy so you can always use it as an ingredient for stuffing, puddings etc..

From - http://bread.com/content/keeping-bread-fresh

Someone in my student house kept doing this, and we'd keep pulling out hairy loaves of cheap white sliced bread.

I'm sorry but experience says that's simply not true. It's easy to prove. I often don't have room in the fridge for two loaves, and if my freezer is full then I inevitably repeat the experiment with the same results every time - although this time of year my kitchen is pretty much as cold as the fridge!

Sliced bread kept in it's plastic bag in a warm environment will go mould in a few days. In the fridge it keeps for over two weeks.

As I said in my previous post, the same isn't true for fresh baked bread generally sold in non-air tight bags. They simply dry out before they can go mouldy.

Either your friend was keeping it in the fridge for far too long, or your fridge is not working.

Random google finds this:

from http://www.moldbacteriaconsulting.com/f ... oulds.html

Meh. The fridge was cold enough, and as I said, we'd frequently have to nag him to remove bags of hairy bread.

It puts me in mind of that "Fresh for a week" loaf that came out a few years ago. It could have been fresh for month, and I still wouldn't eat it - it was bloody horrible.

We get through a fair amount of bread, so there's never much worry about it going off - someone using the last and neglecting to take another loaf out of the freezer is our biggest problem.

They must have been in there for several weeks then. If they were left in the warm for that long, they would actually putrefy and leave the kitchen of their own accord.

Yes smaller loaves are just as dear. A rip off for small users. Though why not just freeze a normal loaf?

My loaves never last long enough.

If I had a chest freezer, I would (just like my parents do).
But I don't. There's precious little room in my fridge freezer for forzen items as it is. I can't waste that space on bread.

Small fridges freezer units are pretty useless most of the time. I love ice cream and there is barely enough space for even a small tub in the freezer section. Now that I have a proper freezer I did keep the odd loaf in there, usually when I bought a bargain bin clearance loaf. Though now that I have bought a food mixer and am trying bread kits I make a loaf whenever I need one. The bread is so nice that it never lasts long enough to go off.