Invasion of the super-sized sarnies: As Subway overtakes McDonalds as our biggest fast-food chain, the artery clogging truth about its sandwiches

By ANNE SHOOTER

Tucking in: Anne Shooter holds a Meatball Marinara sandwich from Subway, where she described the culinary experience as 'revolting'


Now, I’m no food snob. Far from it, in fact. My favourite comfort food is canned pilchards on toast with a cup of strong tea, and I like nothing better than a fry-up in a proper greasy-spoon cafe.

But I have just had one of the most revolting, depressing culinary experiences of my life: I’ve been to my local branch of Subway.

Subway is the sandwich chain that has just announced it is the biggest fast-food franchise in the world.


Top of the shops: Subway has powered into first place in the fast-food league, with 1,500 outlets in Britain alone compared to McDonald's 1,197


On January 1, Subway had 33,749 stores across the globe, spokesman Les Winograd said, surpassing the reported McDonald’s 32,737 outlets. In the UK, there are 1,500 outlets across the country, compared with 1,197 for McDonald’s.

There’s almost certainly a Subway on your High Street. And if there’s not, you can bet there’s one on its way — the chain has been expanding at a rate of six branches a week.


or those who have yet to encounter it, Subway’s basic food is ‘subs’ — long, American-style ‘submarine’ sandwiches, a bit like baguettes, but made with soft bread.

In theory, so far so good — after all, you can choose your length of sub (6in or 12in) and there’s also a selection of breads, from oat and honey to Italian herb and wheat.


Big, meaty... and unhealthy: The regular Subway BMT contains more than 20g of fat and nearly 3g of salt, but if you order the foot-long version you can double the amounts


When it comes to fillings, you can either go for one of their suggestions, such as the Italian BMT (big, meaty and tasty) or the Meatball Marinara (meatballs, tomato sauce and cheese), or you can choose from various sliced meat options, a vegetarian version or tuna.

You may add as many salad ingredients as you like, a sauce of your choice, as well as cheese.

Subway’s slogan is ‘Eat fresh’ and it prides itself on providing ‘healthy’ fast food. It boasts it works with a fully qualified dietitian, Juliette Kellow — a former editor of Slimming magazine — to reduce fat and salt content in its offerings.

It works closely with Heart Research UK and has even been involved with the Government’s Food Network to promote healthier eating.


Utterly revolting? Anne said the meatballs in this sub were grey and tasted only of salt - with the figures showing it contains 3.3g per serving

Walking into the store, the first thing that hit me was the stench: a combination of processed meat, dried herbs and melted processed cheese. Greasy, the smell of cheap, ‘fake’ food.

Bright posters everywhere encouraged me to buy a foot-long sandwich for just £2 more than the basic price (around £3.50 for a 6in sub) and to add crisps and a fizzy drinks plus a doughnut, cookie or nachos.


source: dailymail