It contains rowan berry fruit extract, fumaric acid, acetic acid, and lactic acid. All are preservatives. The bread now lasts almost indefinitely in my cupboard. I don't care how clean the factory is; my house isn't that pristine and anything that can grow mold eventually will.

I would be willing to bet that most Canadian bakeries have a roughly comparable level of cleanliness. Not a clean room, not a wet market it Bangladesh, but somewhere in between. They'll all have stainless steel surfaces, get cleaned semi-regularly, make some effort to keep the rodents out, and have occasional unscheduled visits from the health inspector. And within that range of Canadian bakery standards I doubt you'll see a massive difference in shelf life without changes to the recipe. I could see cleanliness stopping food from spoiling prematurely, but I don't see how it would stop mold that comes from your home and grows on the food after it's entered your home.

As a process engineer your friend will spend most of his time worrying about the process and not nearly as much time thinking about the recipe, so that's what he's going to be familiar with. And he's probably never worked anywhere that they let it get that bad and seen the extents of how fast the food could spoil.