There is still no definitive news about when Home Pride Bread and the other bread brands bought by Flowers Foods will be back on the shelves. However, I did see a mention in a news article that they are working on their regulatory submission. The purchase of the major Hostess bread brands by Flowers Foods vastly changes the bread market. The last major purchase in the bread world was when Grupo Bimbo purchased the Sara Lee brands. They had to spin off assets in several areas, and there is always a chance that Flowers Foods will have to do the same.
I just hope that regulatory approval comes soon and that they release their plan for future distribution of the bread brands that they have acquired.
I have been watching for news about the other Hostess bread brands, and this weekend Sweetheart Bread has been in the news. They will restart distribution this week from their plant in Billings, Montana. This brand was purchased, along with three others, by United States Bakery Inc and Sweetheart bread will be distributed by their Franz Family Bakery division. Since the breads they purchased were smaller regional brands, they did not have a major effect on the bread market so quickly passed regulatory review.
I did not pick up a new loaf of bread last week as I still had enough bread to get me through the week. This weekend I picked up yet another loaf of bread that I wanted to try. I saw it at Safeway last week and thought that it might show up in other stores, but I had to go back there to pick it up.
I decided that since I really liked the Rainbo Butter Top Wheat that I should also try Rainbo Butter Top White. I also did something that I have not done in my series of posts about my Home Pride replacement quest. I took pictures of the bread slices.
The picture does not show the color as well as I would like it to, but you can see that there is not much difference in the color of the two slices of bread. Of course, the Wheat is on the left and the White is on the right. If my memory serves me correctly, Home Pride Wheat is somewhere between these in color.
I will have to see how the taste compares between the two and also my memory of Home Pride Bread. Maybe tomorrow morning I will toast one of each and make a direct comparison :-).
This will now make four breads in a row from Rainbo. Will this one join the list of front runners? If so, I may have to bump one of the Roman Meal breads from the list.
The front runners are Rainbo Butter Top Wheat, Rainbo Wheat Bread , Roman Meal Sungrain 100% Whole Wheat and Roman Meal Thin Sliced Sandwich Bread.
The breads that have not passed the test are Sara Lee 100% Whole Wheat , Safeway’s Butter Top Wheat, Oroweat Soft Family 100% Whole Wheat, Oven Joy, Sara Lee Honey Wheat, Bimbo Soft Wheat Family, Cascade Pride Split Top Wheat , Oroweat simply 100% Whole Wheat, Open Nature 100% Whole Wheat Bread and Rainbo White Bread.
You can click on the bread names above to visit the posts where I reviewed them.
Hopefully more details about Home Pride Bread will be released soon.
Steven
To see my other posts about bread or other Hostess products, click on Home Pride Bread.
Braman's Wanderings 
I totally agree about the Rainbo breads!!
Hello! I just discovered your blog! Thank you!! I too am a Home Pride Butter Top Wheat fanatic! I’ve been wondering for months where my Home Pride bread went and why Safeway had replaced it with some awful butter top bread of their own! I just saw on a news site from last year that Home Pride had been among the Hostess products, which thus explained alot. I never noticed that Hostess owned the Home Pride brand. But I’ve been bereft for months now! I too have started branching out trying to find breads that even come close to Home Pride Butter Top Wheat! I finally gave up on the Safeway bread. I’ve been trying Oroweat Potato Bread for a change of pace. Tasteless. I’ll try Rainbo next, thanks! I really hope Flower Foods relaunches Home Pride! There’s just no comparison!
Thanks for the update!!
I’ve seen Rainbo in the store, but never thought of trying it, will give it a go next time. While I was in Walmart, I went to the bread section, and something caught my eye right away…it looked, from a distance, like Home Pride, but on closer inspection, it was a butter top wheat (and white) from Franz, a regional brand. I thought it was interesting that this company was trying to lure Home Pride buyers by making the packaging look almost exactly like Home Pride’s! I took a picture of it here (hope it’s okay to link to the photo): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v99/amadams/Mobile%20Uploads/20130512_161848_zpsc3225bc4.jpg
sorry for the long URL, you can delete it if you want to. 🙂
The packaging definitely reminds me of Home Pride Bread. I have an idea for including it in a post, may I use the picture if the idea matures?
sure!
I hope Home Pride comes back soon, I’ve got 3 different loaves of bread in my fridge that I’m trying to work through! 😀
Wow, Flower Food could definitely go after Franz for infringement on the brand. The packaging looks almost identical…
it is back. I bought a loaf of Home Pride Buttertop white bread @ Fry’s in Tucson, AZ. TASTE SAME AS IT DID WHEN I LIVED IN DETROIT, MI!
Although I went back for more today and could only find thr HP Wheat or Wonder Bread.
YES, IT’S BACK!!!! I went to Safeway in the Bay Area yesterday and there was a whole display of Home Pride wheat and white bread! I snapped up a loaf of wheat immediately with joy! Tonight I had two slices and it tastes exactly the same as it always has! Yayyyyyy! I’m in heaven! Finally, after two (three?) long years! By the way, I tried four or five other types of breads over the past couple of years and *nothing* compares to Home Pride!
Vanessa, it has only been about a year since Home Pride went away 🙂 it really did feel longer.