Which breads are actually whole grain?

The one whose first ingredient is whole wheat or whole grain flour, because the first ingredient is most of the loaf. Of the 230 breads here only 78 pass that test, and the rest lead with enriched white flour and add whole grains further down the list. After that, look at the two numbers side by side: the highest-fibre loaves on this page mostly carry added sugar too, and that trade is the real choice.

Less than the ingredient list does. A loaf can say whole grain, multigrain or made with whole wheat while being mostly white flour, because those phrases describe what is in it rather than how much. The first ingredient is the regulated version of the same question, which is why this page badges it rather than repeating the front of the bag.

Partly taste and partly texture: sugar softens crumb and helps browning, and whole grain flour is bitter enough that bakers offset it. Dave's Killer 21 Whole Grains is 8.9g of fibre and 8.9g of sugar per 100g; Ezekiel 4:9 has no added sugar and about 3g of fibre. Both are sold as the healthy option and they are not the same option. 190 of the 230 loaves here list a sugar of some kind.

DATEM, mono- and diglycerides and sodium stearoyl lactylate are emulsifiers that make industrial dough behave in a factory: softer crumb, longer shelf life, fewer failed batches. They are ordinary bakery ingredients rather than a scandal, and they are badged here because people ask, not because the page thinks you should avoid them.

Open Food Facts, a free and open database of food labels, the same source behind our cereal sugar, protein bar and peanut butter pages. Values are per 100g as printed. It is crowdsourced, so a label can be mistyped: white breads listed at 27g of fibre are excluded here because white flour cannot deliver that, and recipes change, so check the bag.