Fast casual restaurant chain Panera is expanding the list of additives they won’t allow in their food. The company announced Tuesday that, by the end of 2016, all of the food in its U.S. bakery-cafes will be free of artificial preservatives, colors, sweeteners and flavors. New “clean” salad dressings free of artificial ingredients will be sold starting Tuesday.
According to its “No No List,” Panera already excludes more than 30 additives, including aspartame, parabens, potassium bromate, silicones and theobromine. The 47 items include nitrates/nitrites, BHA (Butylated Hydroxyanisole), BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene) and artificial colors, and account for more than 150 specific ingredients. Panera claims to be the first national restaurant company in the U.S. to publicly share a comprehensive list of ingredients that will be removed from, or never appear in, its menu items. “Last year we unveiled our Food Policy to hold ourselves accountable to long held values and set the future vision for our menu,” said founder and CEO Ron Shaich. “The No No List is the latest step on our journey to clean food and a transparent menu.” “We commend Panera for stepping up in support of healthier food made with ‘cleaner’ ingredients,” said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group. “We are grateful that the Panera team reached out to our experts and listened to our recommendations to improve their fare, eliminating EWG’s ‘dirty dozen’ food additives from their food and using other information from our Food Scores database.” Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, applauded the changes, but told USA Today that high calorie counts are a larger problem for Panera’s menu.
