The food chain, Panera Bread, wants to offer customers a cleaner menu. To do this, they will cut 150 ingredients from its 460 ingredients on its menu to meet the new fit standards.
In an interview with Fortune magazine, CEO Ron Shaich, says,” My kids are eating Panera 10 to 11 times a week,” Shaich tells Fortune. “I don’t want to serve them junk.”
Panera claims it is the first U.S. national restaurant company to publicly share a comprehensive list of ingredients that have been removed from its menu (or will never appear on future items). That list includes unusual-sounding Disodium Guanylate and Azodicarbonamide (which aren’t in Panera’s food today), as well as Polydextrose and Titanium Dioxide (both of which are being removed from the menu).
In total, about 168 of Panera’s roughly 460 ingredients need to be reformulated to fit Panera’s new standards.
“We are basically cleaning out our pantry,” said Sara Burnett, senior quality assurance manager at Panera.
Within the so called “fast-casual” restaurant space, a category led by Panera and burrito chain Chipotle CMG -1.25% , the message is often just as important as the menu. Those chains focus on using the “cleanest” ingredients possible — even if those moves require sacrificed profits in the short term. A carnitas shortage, for example, has caused problems at Chipotle for months. But executives defend the practice by arguing diners, in particular Millennials, are rewarding restaurants that make good on promises to serve better food with fresher ingredients.
Panera is particularly excited about its efforts to “clean” up salad dressings. Beginning Tuesday, the restaurant’s salads will be made without artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors and preservatives. Many of the company’s sales, like the new Kale Caesar salad, are made completely without those artificial additives.
Read the full story at Fortune Magazine.
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