A bread clip is a device used to hold plastic bags closed, such as those in which sliced bread is commonly packaged. They are also commonly called bread tags, bread tabs, bread ties, bread buckles, or bread-bag clips. By sealing a bag more securely than tying or folding over its open end, and thus providing a nearly hermetic seal, the contents are preserved longer.
Most designs of bread clip consist of a single plastic part through which the neck of a plastic bag can be threaded. Because these clips are cheap, ubiquitous, and come in a variety of shapes and colors, some people collect them.[1]
Most bread clips are made from plastic #6 polystyrene (PS),[2] but Quebec-based bread clip manufacturing company KLR Systems released recyclable, cardboard bread clips in 2019,[3] which they later switched to producing in 2022.[4]
Such clips are also used for bagged milk. In the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, the most common package is 4 litres—three 1.33-litre sealed bags in a larger bag, which is closed with a clip and imprinted with the milk's expected expiration date.
A more complex bread clip design involves two articulated plastic parts mounted on a pivot with a spring between them to provide tension.
The bread clip was invented by Floyd G. Paxton and manufactured by the Kwik Lok Corporation, based in Yakima, Washington[5] with manufacturing plants in Yakima and New Haven, Indiana. Kwik Lok Corporation's clips are called "Kwik Lok closures".
Paxton was known for repeatedly telling the story about how he came up with the idea of the bread clip. As he told it, he was flying home on an airliner in 1952 and opened a bag of peanuts, whereupon he realized he had no way to reclose it. He rummaged through his wallet and found an expired credit card and hand-carved his first bag clip with a small pen knife. When a fruit packer, Pacific Fruit, wanted to replace rubber bands with a better bag closure for its new plastic bags, Paxton remembered his bag of peanuts. He hand-whittled another clip from a small sheet of Plexiglas. With an order in hand for a million clips, Paxton designed a die-cut machine to produce the clips at high speed. Despite repeated attempts, Paxton never won a United States patent for the clips themselves. He did, however, win numerous patents for the high-speed "bag closing apparatus" that made the clips, inserted bread into the bags, and applied the clips to said bags.
The bread clip was developed in the early 1950s for a growing need to close plastic bags on the packaging line very efficiently. Manufacturers, using more and more automation in the manufacture and packaging of food, needed methods to raise production volumes and reduce costs. At the same time a hurried population of consumers wanted a fast and easy way to open and effectively seal food bags. The simple bread clip sufficed. In addition, re-closability became a selling point as smaller families and higher costs slowed consumption, leading to a potential for higher rates of spoilage.
Kwik Lok continues to be the main manufacturer of bread clips with Schutte as their European competitor.[6]
The parody website horg.com, created by John Daniel, coined the term occlupanids to describe bread clips, and created a mock phylogeny of the different clip designs.[7] Researchers of occlupanids are called occlupanologists. These terms have since been referenced in popular media.[8] [9] [10]
Case studies in the medical literature document instances of inhalation and ingestion.[11] [12]