The restaurant chain Panera is expanding the list of additives they will no longer have in the food they sell. By the end of 2016, all of the food it offers for sale will be free of artificial colors, sweeteners, and flavors.
Panera just published a “No No List” of additives they are forbidding in their products. Some of those ingredients include nitrates/nitrites, aspartame, theobromine, BHA, BHT, and artificial colors. The restaurant is striving to serve clean food to its customers.
Environmental Working Group, a food advocacy organization, is praising Panera’s decision. Ken Food, EWG president said in a statement, “with this bold commitment, Panera is showing impressive leadership in the restaurant industry to give consumers what they increasingly demand: food with fewer artificial ingredients and additives. 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.”
The ‘dirty dozen’ additives on EWG’s list include nitrates/nitrates, potassium bromate, propyl paraben, Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propyl gullet, theobromine, artificial flavorings, artificial colors, dactyl, phosphate food additives, and aluminum additives. EWG claims that these ingredients should not be allowed in food since they have been linked to health problems in animal testing.
Some of these additives, such as BHA and propyl gallate, may be human carcinogen, according to the National Toxicology Program. Some of these ingredients are on the FDA’s GRAS (generally regarded as safe) list.
