Weird Facts about Wonder® Bread

• While the Taggert Baking Company of Indianapolis, Indiana, prepared to launch its 1.5 pound loaf of bread, company Vice President Elmer Cline, in charge of marketing the new bread, attended the International Balloon Race at the Indianapolis Speedway. Awed by a sky filled with hundreds of colorful balloons, Cline seized his sense of “wonder,” giving Wonder Bread its name, and decided to decorate the new package with colorful red, blue and yellow balloons.
• To promote the newly launched Wonder Bread, Taggert Baking Company trucks delivered helium-filled balloons to children, who were asked to take a letter home to their mother. The letter, featuring a picture of the new loaf of Wonder Bread, invited the reader to try the new bread. The promotion purportedly catapulted Wonder Bread sales beyond all other brands in the city.
• In 1925, the Continental Baking Company bought the Taggert Baking Company and shortly after launched Wonder Bread as a national brand.
• The Continental Baking Company introduced sliced Wonder Bread in the 1930s.
• During World War II, metal blades for the bread-slicing machines were no longer available, unsliced Wonder Bread returned to grocery store shelves.
• In 1941, Wonder Bread participated in a government-supported move to enrich white bread with vitamins and minerals to improve nutrition. Known as the “quiet miracle,” bread enrichment nearly eliminated the diseases Beriberi and Pellagra and brought essential nutrients to people who previously could not afford nutritious foods. Wonder Bread also introduced a revolutionary new way of baking that eliminated holes in bread.
• In 1986, the Continental Baking Company launched a new reduced-calorie Wonder Bread called Wonder Light.
• In 1995, Interstate Brands Corporation acquired the Continental Baking Company.
• To celebrate Wonder Bread’s 80th birthday in 2001, Interstate Bakeries Corporation launched the Wonder Bread hot air balloon. Every summer the Wonder balloon travels across the country visiting bakeries and balloon festivals.
• To ensure that each loaf of Wonder Bread is fresh when it reaches the consumer, Wonder Bread is delivered to most stores five days a week. Many bakeries use the color-coded twist ties on the packages of bread to identify when the bread was baked, although the color code may vary depending on the geographic location of the bakery.