Don't Let a Wonder Bread Lawyer Tell You It's Real Bread!

A blog and Instagram post I made two weeks ago got a significant “click response” from Internet surfers beyond Pender Island. It was about the recent Wonder Bread commercial gracing the television airwaves.

Nowhere in the commercial was the word “bread” used. The ad was all about the “Wonder” brand and focused on arts and crafts products that used the yellow, blue and red balloons on the Wonder logo.

So, is Wonder Bread really bread? Or is it a brand? And what is the difference?

A reader brought to my attention that, in Ireland, Subway is no longer allowed to call the “bread” used in its sandwiches as bread.

Irish court rules against Subway

Subway bread has too much sugar, an Irish court ruled in October 2021. The country’s tax rules say that tax-exempt bread can’t have sugar, fat or bread improvers over 2% of its weight in flour.

Subway’s “bread” recipe contains 10% sugar as compared to the weight of the flour, according to the judgment. That’s five times what the law deems acceptable.

A “staple food” in Ireland, such as bread, qualifies for tax exemptions under the law. Cake, cookies and pastries are not staples and are subject to value-added taxes. Nor are non-bread food items allowed to use the word bread in marketing.

In other words, the court found that Subway’s bread is legally closer to cake than bread.

We will not be lied to. From now on they will have to be described as "Cakes with Ham in Them".https://t.co/0DuWXmqHx7
— Aisling Bea (@WeeMissBea) October 1, 2020

It’s an interesting legal difficulty for a company that specializes in sandwiches — a significant component of which is, supposedly, bread.

As a consumer, I wouldn’t quibble. I’d still call it bread, but I’d be less likely to eat it, knowing that 10% of its total flour weight is sugar.

What’s real bread?

I’ve enjoyed Subway sandwiches, but I’ve had far better sandwiches made with “real bread” and wholesome fillings.

And that begs the question: What is real bread?

In an earlier Happy Monk blog post, I listed a few characteristics of “artisan bread:”

Mostly made by hand, from scratch
Stone-milled flour
High percentage of whole grain
Naturally leavened (sourdough)
Use of ancient and heritage grains, like einkorn, spelt and Kamut
Simpler and fewer ingredients (mostly flour, water, salt)
Nutritious and flavour forward
Perhaps wood-fired

Bread made in an electric steam-injected oven tastes much like bread made in a wood-fired oven. It has a different appearance but tastes the same. Well-made loaves can also contain dry commercial yeast and still be delicious. Every artisan loaf need not meet all of these criteria.

Ingredients and processes are everything.

Most supermarket bread is made in factories that use dough conditioners, preservatives, bleaching agents and artificial flavours. Dough whippers, air pumps and heat-controlled rooms speed up the rising of the dough.

… And yet we use the same word for it!

Johnny Harris, the journalist behind the popular YouTube video “How the U.S. Ruined Bread,” agrees. Having tasted some of the best bread in France, he holds up a loaf of Wonder Bread.

“I would argue that this is not bread anymore! It is a bread-like substance made from different processes … yet we use the same word for it.”

That loaf has travelled so far away from how bread has been made for millennia that it has become a different product entirely. And proper bakers who take pride in their loaves would probably agree. No amount of legal wrangling could genuinely change that.

I appreciate the Irish court ruling that Subway “bread” is not real bread in the eyes of the law. The bread baked “on-premises” was probably mixed months ago, laden with dough enhancers, preservatives and additives, frozen and shipped across the country.

A loaf made on South Pender Island is mixed Wednesday or Thursday using stone-ground flour, baked Friday morning and in customers’ hands later the same day. Is that loaf the same as Wonder Bread?

Don’t let a lawyer from the Wonder Corporation convince you it is!

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Irish court rules against Subway

What’s real bread?

… And yet we use the same word for it!

happymonkbaking

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