Is Subway's Bread Actually Bread? The Answer Is More Complicated Than You'd Think

When you walk into a Subway and smell the scent of bread, you may actually be smelling a type of cake — according to Ireland's Supreme Court, that is. In 2020, it ruled that the sugar content in Subway's savory sandwich bread was above the legal limit required to be labeled "bread," according to the country's Value-Added Tax Act of 1972, which states that for a baked good to qualify as bread, its sugar content cannot exceed 2% of the total weight of flour. The court reported that Subway's bread contains five times that amount of sugar. While the chain's Italian Herb and Cheese bread clearly doesn't resemble a classic chocolate cake, the ruling stated that Subway's bread may actually be closer to cake when considering its sugar content.

The court case was originally opened by a Subway franchisee that wanted to avoid paying the value-added tax on staple food products. Thus began a lengthy dispute over the definitions of each ingredient, eventually leading to the discovery that Subway's high sugar content in the bread warranted redefining it, per the court ruling. For the time being, other countries, including the United States, still consider Subway's bread to be bread. However, word of the Irish Supreme Court judgment quickly spread, prompting many customers to reconsider whether they view Subway's sugary bread as the real deal.

Subway's bread may not be the most nutritious, but the company insists it is still what it claims to be. In response to the Irish Supreme Court ruling that Subway's bread cannot be legally classified as such, a Subway spokesperson defended the baked good, telling the BBC that "Subway's bread is, of course, bread." Some people online have found the label change rather amusing. One user on X, formerly Twitter, joked, "From now on they will have to be described as 'Cakes with Ham in Them.'"

Other legal issues regarding Subway's bread, however (and yes, there are multiple), have not been met with as much humor. In 2013, Subway was sued for giving customers footlong sandwiches that did not measure a full 12 inches. Although the settlement was ultimately dismissed, it didn't stop people from breaking out their measuring tapes for years to come.

A year later, it was discovered that a bread additive called azodicarbonamide, commonly found in items like yoga mats and rubber products, was present in Subway's bread in North American locations. A petition calling for the ingredient's removal gained widespread attention, resulting in Subway removing the chemical from its bread products. Or ... should we call them cake?