Irish high court rules that the chain Subway is not using "bread" in its sandwiches

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Due to the high sugar content, the court has ruled that it's actually using a "confectionery" to make sandwiches, due to its high sugar content.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/01/irish-court-rules-subway-bread-is-not-bread

The Guardian said:
Those wrestling with the great culinary-philosophical dilemmas of our time – are jaffa cakes actually cakes or just up-themselves biscuits, is putting chorizo in paella really an act of gastronomic terrorism, and what kind of monster doesn’t love Marmite? – can give thanks to the Irish supreme court. Earlier this week, it brought clarity to an important, if less bitterly contested, debate.

In a judgment published on Tuesday, the court ruled that the bread served at Subway, the US chain that hawks giant sandwiches in 110 countries and territories, could not in fact be defined as bread because of its high sugar content.

The ruling followed an appeal by Bookfinders Ltd, Subway’s Irish franchisee. The company had argued that the bread used in Subway sandwiches counted as a staple food and was consequently exempt from VAT.

However, as the court pointed out, Ireland’s Value-Added Tax Act of 1972 draws a distinction between staple foods – bread, tea, coffee, cocoa, milk and “preparations or extracts of meat or eggs” – and “more discretionary indulgences” such as ice-cream, chocolate, pastries, crisps, popcorn and roasted nuts.

The clincher was the act’s strict provision that the amount of sugar in bread “shall not exceed 2% of the weight of flour included in the dough”.

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Have never liked their sandwiches, so now I can feel smarter? ;)
 
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MaeZe

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I empathize with the court order. There is no reason for a lot of sugar or fructose in bread. I make a point of searching the ingredient lists because sugar in bread annoys me.
 

Maddy Knight

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Way back when they first came out, Subway was pretty good. A nice alternative to the burger glut. Over the years, though, they just got more and more commercial fast foody. I remember getting the meatball sub way back, and they were really big 'real meat' meatballs smothered in sauce. Now they are a are tiny little unknown meat source. I stopped eating at Subway maybe 15 years ago. The BBQ sandwich was also awsome way back. Now it's just garbage.

I guess Subway figured they could replace good quality ingredients with sugar to keep the old fans coming back, and getting them addicted. I have no issue with the Irish court's decision.
 
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Beccorban

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Is Quiznos still around? They always seemed superior to Subway anyway.