A FAMILY has kept a bread roll for 200 YEARS which has been passed down from generation to generation and is still in tact.

By SEAN MARTIN AND MONIKA PALLENBERG

The small bread roll, which over time has shrunk to just five centimetres, is kept by the Lerf family in Bavaria.

It was first baked back in 1817, and has managed to stay in tact due to the fact that it was packed with chalk and sand for economic reasons.

It is wrapped in a sandwich paper that still has the original ‘1817’ mark on it to signify when it was made.

It is arguably the oldest bread in the world, and Christian Lerf said: "We found it among my grandmother's estate when we tidied up.”

The 73-year old grandmother is still the owner of the ancient bread and has put it on display for the world to see.

Along with the bread is a piecer of paper that said that it had cost at the time four Pfenning – and old German currency – which in today’s money translated to roughly €40, which Mr Lerf described as “farfetched”.

During 1817, much of Europe was facing economic hardship as there was a severe food shortage.