"I Can't Believe It's Not Bread!": Subway vs. Ireland

The expression "looks can be deceiving" can be applicable to anyone or anything that ends up not being what it appears to be. This phrase especially applies to food products as there are a great deal of items that are deceitful in their appearance, albeit intentional, such as imitation crab, meat alternatives, and the spread that birthed the famous "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" phrase. The fast-food industry is the poster child for "looks can be deceiving" as there have been multiple instances of chains serving items not exactly how they were in the commercials (McDonald's Big Mac being one notable example), and let's not even get into the fake ingredients because authentic fast food is basically an oxymoron. 

For Ireland, authentic bread is definitely an oxymoron regarding the fast-food chain Subway, as back in 2020 the Irish Supreme Court declared Subway bread as not actually bread due to the abundance of sugar. Now, I've seen multiple food debates to last a lifetime (pineapple on pizza is one that is overplayed to death), but this the first time I read about one being determined by an actual law. One would think that since sugar is a major ingredient in bread, the amount of sugar used would be irrelevant to the authenticity of bread. In fact, as an avid Subway consumer, I barely notice how "sweet" their bread is unless it's Honey Oat, which was unfortunately discontinued. However, the Irish is apparently very strict about sugar to flour ratio in bread, as Ireland's Value-Added Tax Act of 1972 does not allow sugar to exceed 2% of the weight of flour, and lo and behold Subway's recipe makes up five times of that 2% Ireland allows, making it legally closer to cake than bread (on a side note: imagine if Subway made a sandwich with actual cake as bread, I'm gagging just thinking about it but I would not put it past them to try). 

As expected, Subway dismissed Ireland's ruling, claiming that their bread "smells as good as it tastes", which is not only debatable but doesn't necessarily defend their stance of their bread being legitimately, well, bread. At the very least, maybe the Subways in Ireland can just make their bread a dessert option along with the cookies; no doubt there are sweet opportunities to be made with their flatbread. 

Source:

Subway's Bread Isn't Bread, Ireland's Supreme Court Rules : NPR