A method for manufacturing bread crumbs is provided which does not use a conventional staling step. The ingredients of bread dough are mixed together and baked to form bread loaves. The unstated bread is then subjected to a heat conditioning step to create a bread crumb product with qualities similar to bread crumb products produced using a conventional staling step. Thereafter, the bread may be further processed to form smaller bread crumbs, dried, and packaged for sale. As a result, no time-consuming staling step is needed in order to produce a bread crumb product having desirable qualities similar to those of bread crumb products that have been subjected to a conventional staling step.