Panera Bread is majorly overhauling its menu, but in ways you might not recognize. According to USA Today, the café chain is dropping more than 150 artificial ingredients from its foods.
The dropped ingredients include some artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and artificial flavors, and the chain hopes to get rid of them by the end of 2016. "We're trying to draw a line in the sand in the industry so that consumers have an easy way to know what's in the food they buy," CEO Ron Shaich told the New York Times. The chain reportedly came up with a "No No List" based on research from authorities like Johns Hopkins, governments of European countries, and environmental groups.
Panera joins a whole host of food chains that are making sweeping changes to its ingredients. McDonald's is banning antibiotics from its chicken, for example, and Chipotle just dropped genetically modified ingredients altogether.
Starting tomorrow, Panera will start its new menu push with its salad dressings, only offering "clean" products without artificial flavors and preservatives. You can take a look at Panera's "No-No List" for yourself on their website.