Consumer Reports' Lowest-Rated Bread Comes From A Beloved Brand

Pepperidge Farm has been around for so long, you probably don't give much thought to which loaf you pick up. Maybe you have a favorite, maybe you just grab whatever is on sale. Either way, the brand is highly regarded in the bread aisle. But it turns out not all of its loaves are beloved. In fact, we ranked one of them the worst whole grain bread we've ever had and another landed dead last in Consumer Reports' bread rankings. The unfortunate loaf in question is Pepperidge Farm's Farmhouse Homestyle Oat bread, one of 56 store-bought breads Consumer Reports ranked based on nutritional value. Other Pepperidge Farm varieties fared somewhat better in the rankings, but they weren't exactly giving the competition a run for its money, either, with many failing to make much of an impression compared with the higher-ranked options.

CR looked at several factors, including calories, whole grains, total fat, carbohydrates, fiber, and protein. The nutritional shortcomings of Pepperidge Farm's oat bread are a bit of a head-scratcher, especially considering that the brand advertises it as a "homestyle" bread made with oats, a whole grain famously high in fiber.

A slice of Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse Homestyle Oat Bread weighing around 49 grams has 130 calories, which is pretty textbook for bread. But when you look beyond the calorie count, the nutritional breakdown gets a little less impressive. One slice provides only 1 gram of dietary fiber (4% of the daily value), 4 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of total fat, including 0.5 grams of saturated fat. For such a small serving, the slice is also fairly high in sodium, with 210 milligrams. If you have two slices for a sandwich, you're already looking at 420 milligrams of sodium, or 18% of the FDA's recommended Daily Value of 2,300 milligrams.

Given that Pepperidge Farm started as a one-woman baking business making homestyle bread, it's easy to assume that its loaves are still close to homemade. But in the case of its Farmhouse Homestyle Oat bread, "homestyle" seems like a bit of a stretch. Unless, of course, your homemade bread recipe calls for more than 10 ingredients.

A closer look at the ingredient list shows that alongside enriched wheat flour, oats, sugar, and yeast, Pepperidge Farm's Farmhouse Homestyle Oat bread contains soybean oil, calcium propionate, sorbic acid, sodium stearoyl lactylate, and several other additives commonly used in commercial bread production. However, when Margaret Rudkin founded Pepperidge Farm in 1937, her approach to breadmaking was much closer to traditional home baking. 

Rudkin started making bread in her kitchen using quality ingredients, with the goal of producing loaves that were as good as homemade. Old Pepperidge Farm advertisements promoted the use of 93-score AA butter, described as the highest quality available. One advertisement also stated that "no other shortening is ever used in Pepperidge Farm Bread." That emphasis on quality ingredients is a far cry from the lengthy ingredient list found in today's Farmhouse Homestyle Oat bread.