Basis of Presentation - Additional Information (Detail)	6 Months Ended
Jul. 12, 2014 Segment
Basis of Presentation [Line Items]
Segment reporting, description	SEGMENTS - Flowers Foods currently operates two business segments a direct-store-delivery segment ("DSD segment") and a warehouse delivery segment ("warehouse segment").The DSD segment (84% of total year to date sales) operates 38 bakeries that market a wide variety of fresh bakery foods, including fresh breads, buns, rolls, tortillas, and snack cakes. These products are sold through a DSD route delivery system to retail and foodservice customers in the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, New England, and Southwest as well as in select markets in California and Nevada. The warehouse segment (16% of total year to date sales) operates eights bakeries that produce snack cakes and breads and rolls for national retail, foodservice, vending, and co-pack customers and deliver through customers’ warehouse channels. The warehouse segment also operates one mix facility. Effective the first day of fiscal 2014, we reclassified our tortilla operation from a warehouse segment bakery to the DSD segment. This reclassification was made to better align their sales with the delivery method primarily used to serve their customers. All prior period information has been recasted to reflect this change.
Number of business segments	2

Basis of Presentation - Additional Information (Detail)

6 Months Ended

Jul. 12, 2014

Segment

SEGMENTS - Flowers Foods currently operates two business segments a direct-store-delivery segment ("DSD segment") and a warehouse delivery segment ("warehouse segment").The DSD segment (84% of total year to date sales) operates 38 bakeries that market a wide variety of fresh bakery foods, including fresh breads, buns, rolls, tortillas, and snack cakes. These products are sold through a DSD route delivery system to retail and foodservice customers in the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, New England, and Southwest as well as in select markets in California and Nevada. The warehouse segment (16% of total year to date sales) operates eights bakeries that produce snack cakes and breads and rolls for national retail, foodservice, vending, and co-pack customers and deliver through customers’ warehouse channels. The warehouse segment also operates one mix facility. Effective the first day of fiscal 2014, we reclassified our tortilla operation from a warehouse segment bakery to the DSD segment. This reclassification was made to better align their sales with the delivery method primarily used to serve their customers. All prior period information has been recasted to reflect this change.

Number of business segments