For those looking to find strong Consumer Staples stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Flowers Foods (FLO) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year-to-date performance of FLO and the rest of the Consumer Staples group's stocks.Flowers Foods is a member of the Consumer Staples sector. This group includes 174 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #7. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.The Zacks Rank is a successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. FLO is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FLO's full-year earnings has moved 4.47% higher within the past quarter. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.According to our latest data, FLO has moved about 2.67% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, the Consumer Staples sector has returned an average of -12.90% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Flowers Foods is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.Looking more specifically, FLO belongs to the Food - Miscellaneous industry, which includes 43 individual stocks and currently sits at #72 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 9.62% this year, meaning that FLO is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.Investors in the Consumer Staples sector will want to keep a close eye on FLO as it attempts to continue its solid performance.Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Flowers Foods, Inc. (FLO): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here.