Subway bread isn't bread, Irish court says

[esquared]

Apparently, in Ireland, if your bread has over 2% sugar by weight, its not bread. (as a staple food)
It's considered baked goods or something like that. 10% sugar, wow.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/subway-bread-isnt-bread-irish-125754259.html

"“There is no dispute that the bread supplied by Subway in its heated sandwiches has a sugar content of 10% of the weight of
the flour included in the dough, and thus exceeds the 2% specified,” the judgement read.
The law makes a distinction between “bread as a staple food” and other baked goods “which are, or approach, confectionery or fancy baked goods,” the judgement said."

Probably not unlike cheese. It has to conform to a standard. Reason why Kraft American cheese (singles) are called cheese food.

Cheese Definitions & Categories | American Cheese Society

What is Milk? What is Cheese? The American Cheese Society defines these key terms, and explores the many ways that cheese can be categorized- including artisan, farmstead and specialty cheese- here.

www.cheesesociety.org

 

[WelshBloke]

10% sugar is cake!

 

[sdifox]

10% sugar is cake!

Cheesecake is a lie!

So what happens to sweet bread in Ireland? Classified as beer?

 

[pmv]

Why the heck do they put so much sugar in their bread anyway? Maybe this ruling will encourage them to just change their recipe?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Why the heck do they put so much sugar in their bread anyway? Maybe this ruling will encourage them to just change their recipe?

Brains love sugar

 

[zinfamous]

Cheesecake is a lie!

So what happens to sweet bread in Ireland? Classified as beer?

Beer is bread in Ireland.

 

[UNCjigga]

Didn’t some investigation also find that Subway bread contained plastic finishing chemicals too? I’ll have to look it up now...

Yup—it was a while back. I guess they took that out though.

Subway to remove 'dough conditioner' chemical from bread

Subway said it is phasing out a chemical from its breads that is also found in yoga mats and shoe soles.

www.cnn.com

 

[sportage]

And speaking of baked goods, I swear Walmart uses sawdust instead of flower for their baked items. Seriously, I think they do.

 

[darkswordsman17]

OP, that's 2% sugar by weight in the flour. Even the 10% that Subway apparently uses ends up being a few grams of sugar per 6", which is honestly less than is in a lot of sliced bread (I see quite a bit that has 2-4g sugar per 1/2 slices, which is probably half as much bread as a 6" loaf is).

 

[quikah]

OP, that's 2% sugar by weight in the flour. Even the 10% that Subway apparently uses ends up being a few grams of sugar per 6", which is honestly less than is in a lot of sliced bread (I see quite a bit that has 2-4g sugar per 1/2 slices, which is probably half as much bread as a 6" loaf is).

Maybe you should rethink the bread you are eating then? The whole wheat bread I eat (a cheap store brand) has 1g of sugar in 2 slices (56g).

I occasionally make my own sandwich rolls, the recipe I use includes 0 sugar.

 

[Perknose]

Beer is bread in Ireland.

For tax purposes, beer is literally classified as "lebensmittle" in Germany, which directly translates to English as "life stuff" or, as we commonly know it, FOOD!

 

[Wreckem]

And speaking of baked goods, I swear Walmart uses sawdust instead of flower for their baked items. Seriously, I think they do.

There are multiple companies that use cellulose in their baked goods. Most food grade cellulose comes from wood pulp.

It’s a filler that is unfortunately used in a lot of products from shelf stable parmeasan cheese to baked goods, and a whole host of other things.

 

[Brainonska511]

Didn’t some investigation also find that Subway bread contained plastic finishing chemicals too? I’ll have to look it up now...

Yup—it was a while back. I guess they took that out though.

Subway to remove 'dough conditioner' chemical from bread

Subway said it is phasing out a chemical from its breads that is also found in yoga mats and shoe soles.

www.cnn.com

That was overblown chemophobia nonsense. Azidocarbonamide is used in a lot of bread products and it completely breaks down during baking; any potential biproducts that may be "bad" are only bad at levels that far exceed what a human would be exposed to by a product baked with this ingredient.

 

[hal2kilo]

Yea, but it's fresh and warm crap bread.
Thank god, some decent sub chains showed up. Hat's off to Jersey Mikes and Jimmy Johns (which is inferior to Mikes IMO).

 

[A///]

Years and years ago my go to for Subway was the terriyaki chicken in the honey wheat bread or the jalapeno cheddar bread, toasted, with extra sauce and avocado. I'd then cap it off with a third of a bottle of yellow mustard.

Gagging thinking back to how I managed to enjoy that.

 

[IronWing]

Why the heck do they put so much sugar in their bread anyway? Maybe this ruling will encourage them to just change their recipe?

The sugar causes the yeast to rise faster and the crust to brown. Faster bread is better bread when all you care about is cranking out product as fast and cheaply as possible.

 

[pmv]

The sugar causes the yeast to rise faster and the crust to brown. Faster bread is better bread when all you care about is cranking out product as fast and cheaply as possible.

I guess, if this law works as intended, it should act as a counterbalance to that (market) incentive and give them a reason to reduce that sugar content? I wonder if that would only be the case if the law applied across different countries, though? Surprised it isn't an EU-wide thing.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Maybe you should rethink the bread you are eating then? The whole wheat bread I eat (a cheap store brand) has 1g of sugar in 2 slices (56g).

I occasionally make my own sandwich rolls, the recipe I use includes 0 sugar.

Maybe you should learn to read? Which, oh no, a few grams of sugar in bread, whatever would I do?!? I like how you're trying to act like I'm eating shit bread because I can read food labels and see lots of bread that has just as much sugar as Subway's. Oh, let me guess you're a pure 100000% All Natural Chemical Free asshole?

Oh yeah? Do you bake those in your dutch oven or is that just for smelling your own farts?

There are multiple companies that use cellulose in their baked goods. Most food grade cellulose comes from wood pulp.

It’s a filler that is unfortunately used in a lot of products from shelf stable parmeasan cheese to baked goods, and a whole host of other things.

While it is used as filler in some foods (the Taco Bell meat for instance if I remember right), in Parmesan its there as an anti-caking agent.

Meh, frankly it should probably be used even more abundantly!

Good old cellulose (its why you get kernels of corn in your shit).

Yea, but it's fresh and warm crap bread.
Thank god, some decent sub chains showed up. Hat's off to Jersey Mikes and Jimmy Johns (which is inferior to Mikes IMO).

If you think their bread is any better, got some bad news for ya. Or at least its not really much if any healthier.

Jersey Mike's and Jimmy John's bread is nothing special. I mean its fine, but don't start acting like they're some great source of bread, let alone copping like their bread is so much better than Subway's.

Jimmy John's in my experience is worse than Subway. Not talking about bread either, although frankly every single sandwich I've ever personally gotten from there has had undercooked bread (which unfortunately does happen a fair amount at Subway as well).

 

[pmv]

There are multiple companies that use cellulose in their baked goods. Most food grade cellulose comes from wood pulp.

It’s a filler that is unfortunately used in a lot of products from shelf stable parmeasan cheese to baked goods, and a whole host of other things.

Not sure I'm that bothered by the idea of cellulose being in there. I mean, it's just wood, essentially. Does that not count as a vegetable? I've absent-mindedly chewed on a few toothpicks in my time, the occasional stalk from an apple. It's not a horrifying notion.

I'd rather bread had less sugar in it though - sugar is not great for you, and I know I already eat too much of it. When I eat sugar I want to _know_ I'm eating sugar and it better be in something like cake or chocolate or ice-cream. Seems a waste to eat it in bread. A lot of shop-bought bread has quite a lot of sugar in it, I realise, though from the sound of it Subway's is an outlier even by that standard.

 

[woolfe9998]

Not sure I'm that bothered by the idea of cellulose being in there. I mean, it's just wood, essentially. Does that not count as a vegetable? I've absent-mindedly chewed on a few toothpicks in my time, the occasional stalk from an apple. It's not a horrifying notion.

I'd rather bread had less sugar in it though - sugar is not great for you, and I know I already eat too much of it. When I eat sugar I want to _know_ I'm eating sugar and it better be in something like cake or chocolate or ice-cream. Seems a waste to eat it in bread. A lot of shop-bought bread has quite a lot of sugar in it, I realise, though from the sound of it Subway's is an outlier even by that standard.

Not really. There really isn't that much to be concerned about in regards to sugar other than its high calorie density and low nutritional content. It doesn't even cause diabetes. If you're looking at bread products, look at the calories first. Being overweight is bad. Eating sugar without being overweight - not so much.