World News for Students of English

12-10-2020 07:00

Ireland’s top court ruled that Subway’s bread was too sugary to meet the definition of ’bread’.

The judgment was a response to a Subway’s franchisee who had appealed for a tax refund, arguing that its bread was a staple food and therefore a subject to a 0% tax rate. However, the sugar and fat levels of the food must fall below certain limits; otherwise, it is classified the same as other baked goods like cookies.

Surprisingly, Subway’s 6-inch white bread has five grams of sugar, which is similar to an Oreo cookie. The bread has a sugar content of 10% of the weight of the flour included in one dough. However, according to Ireland’s law, the sugar content should not exceed 2% of the weight of flour in the dough.

In 2018, the chain closed more than 1,000 locations in the US after struggling to adapt to more health-conscious customers.

Difficult words: franchisee (a person or a company that has a license to run a restaurant that is similar to other restaurants), staple food (a basic food that is eaten every day), dough (a mixture of flour and water that is used for baking bread or pastry).

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