ADDRESSING PANERA BREAD’S FOOD POLICY AND “NO NO LIST” FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A FOOD SCIENTIST: PART I

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Submitted Date 10/24/2018
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Panera Bread has created a “No No List” of food ingredients that it does not add to their food products. However, they fail to educate the consumer on these items, but instead labeling them all as not a part of their 100% clean initiative. This article is part of a two-part series that aims to address this “No No List”, Panera Bread’s Food Policy, and help educate the consumer on these food ingredients. Part I will focus on Panera’s Food Policy, and Part II will specifically address the “No No List” ingredients.

Panera’s Food Policy Statement:

https://www.panerabread.com/content/dam/panerabread/documents/nutrition/panera-bread-food-policy.pdf

Panera’s #1 commitment in their policy regards clean ingredients.

In their first point they say they want to offer a “cleaner” menu. That, the simpler the ingredient, the better it tastes.

This statement is far from the truth. Food ingredients are complex. Take for example, an orange. An orange contains sugars, water, acids (citric, malic, ascorbic (or Vitamin C)), phytochemicals, lipid (essential oils), and hundreds of different flavor compounds that most people cannot even pronounce. To say that a food ingredient is simple, is an understatement. Some of these ingredients on their “No No List” are actually only 1 type of compound, so why is that not considered “simple”? Also, if a food ingredient is not considered “clean”, is it “dirty”? As for taste, some “simple” ingredients do not taste very well. Take caffeine for example. Natural or artificial, caffeine is a pretty bitter tasting compound that you would not enjoy the taste were in not in your cup of coffee. In fact caffeine is often used in sensory analysis as the bitter standard. You may be thinking, well these are compounds I cannot pronounce. However, look at this picture of the ingredients in a strawberry:


Those flavor compounds are difficult to pronounce, giving even the most experienced scientists a tough time. Just because one cannot pronounce an ingredient, does not mean that the ingredient should not be consumed. It is important to understand that these chemical names are most often indicative of their chemical structure, hence the complex name.

Their second point is removal of artificial trans-fat.

This, Panera is doing right. As of June 2018, artificial trans-fat (aka trans-fat produced from partially hydrogenating oil), no longer meets the FDA’s GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status. Therefore, no food product cancontain >0.5g of “artificial” trans-fat since it has been found that excess consumption of trans-fat (not produced from ruminant animals) can cause increased risk of cardiovascular disease and raise LDL cholesterol levels.


Their third point is eliminating artificial colors, sweeteners, flavors, and preservatives to improve quality and taste.

These artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and preservatives are all designed to make the food product look and taste great. Good preservatives do not inherently affect taste but allow for the product to have increased shelf life by protecting the food from spoilage. However, many consumers do not realize that those “natural flavors” are often made in that same lab as artificial flavors. Natural flavors must be extracted from the food constituent such as fruit, yeast, bark, spices, and other biological materials. The extract process requires some sort of post-harvest processing such as mechanical pressing, solvent and/or heat extraction, or with the help of fermentation. Chemically, some artificial and natural flavors are very similar, apart from how they are made. Of course, artificial flavors are tested for safety, ensuring that what the consumer gets is a great product that does not negatively impact health. Often it is challenging to find non-artificial preservatives, flavors, and colors that have high stability against heat, light, oxygen, and long storage.

Their fourth point is baking fresh bread every day that has no artificial preservatives and uses the best unbleached flour.

It is good that a bakery is baking their bread fresh every day, otherwise any consumer would not be happy eating day+ old bread. Unbleached flour is fine to use, and it is assumed they are referring to using unbleached versus bleached flour. The only main difference between unbleached and bleached is that bleached flour is whitened more quickly than unbleached flour typically using extremely low levels of chlorine dioxide gas, and no you are not consuming the chlorine dioxide gas. Unbleached flour takes longer to produce because it is “aged”. The aging process whitens to an off-white color due to the exposure to oxygen and therefore dulling of the flour color over time. Bleached flour also has a softer texture than the denser unbleached flour, making bleached flour preferable for cakes and other sweet baked goods.

Their fifth point addresses delivering tomatoes and other fresh produce faster than conventional food distribution allowing for the tomatoes to be kept in fields longer which eliminates the need for gassing or additional treatments to artificially ripening them.

Ripening of produce like tomatoes is controlled by the tomatoes’ ability to produce ethylene gas. Once tomatoes reach their mature stage (at this point they are still green) the tomatoes start to produce the ethylene gas to cause the tomatoes to turn red. Tomatoes are considered ripened once it reaches that bright red color. Produce is often picked before ripening so that it can be safely transported without causing bruising or spoilage. As the produce produces ethylene gas (on or off vine, or as produce is exposed to ethylene gas), it ripens. Nutritionally there is minimal difference from the tomatoes ripened on the vine or “artificially”. So, in terms of quality, there is no large difference between vine tomatoes and tomatoes ripened after being picked, making either an acceptable choice.

Commitment #2: Transparent Menu


Panera Bread is doing good by the consumer to offer a transparent menu. They show calorie content, have a Food Policy (albeit flawed), offers the consumer a menu full of mix and match choices, and provides important facts such as nutritional disclosure, allergen information, and ingredient information on the web, mobile apps, and in the cafes. This is all information that restaurants should be able to provide consumers, and Panera is doing a good job at trying to keep the consumer informed.

Commitment #3: Positive Impact


Their first point in this section addresses purchasing livestock responsibly, meaning they have been fed vegetarian-based/customized diets, there are not antibiotics, and the livestock are raised in a reduced-stress environment.

All meat sold in the US does not contain antibiotics, whether the label says so or not. The USDA routinely tests for antibiotic residues and ensures there are no antibiotics in the meat. Also, the main goal or animal/poultry scientists is to make sure that the animals are receiving proper treatment, including their environment. Animals are raised to ensure maximal comfort (easy access to food, clean shelter, etc). Stressed animals typically produce poor/tough meat, so farmers and scientists are always researching ways to improve quality of meat, including the environment that the animal is raised in. Additionally, there is no major nutritional difference in grain and grass-fed beef. Grain fed beef typically has higher amounts of fat, leading to higher amounts of marbling (intramuscular fat) and a tender and more juicy steak.

The next few points in this section focus on working with and monitoring suppliers and supporting North American farmers.

Panera Bread is doing right by keeping good contact with their suppliers and supporting North American farmers. Having sustainable fishing practices so that there is no overfishing is a good model. They ensure that their fish is wild caught, though nutritionally there is not much difference between farm raised and wild caught. The nutritional quality of seafood does depend largely on the fish diet, allowing for farm raised seafood to have slightly higher omega-3 fatty acids by fortification of the diet with algae that produces omega-3 fatty acids. Farm raised fish can also be grown closer to major cities, requiring less transportation.

Panera also addresses that they are working on reducing the environmental and societal impacts of sourcing palm oil that is used in their products. Palm oil is used in a lot of products, and not only for food. The major concern is deforestation due to malpractices. The Malaysian Palm Oil Board and other agencies looking into ways to ensure that palm oil is produced sustainably and fulfills the increasing global demand for palm oil.

Panera also includes they are working on reducing food waste, raise awareness about hunger in America, and increase the use of recyclable containers/utensils. These are all important issues to be concerned with, and Panera is doing good by showing they are trying to help on these issues. One way they are helping is they mention their Community Cafes, which allow for consumers to pay what they can for food.

Conclusion

While Panera Bread is clearly concerned for the wellbeing of their consumers, their Food Policy is very misguided. As a consumer, one should be aware of how companies market their products and should do their own research (find credible sources, FoodBabe is not a credible source).  With this in mind, the Part II in this series will address the "No No List" and discuss if any of the products actually belong on that list.

Want More Information?

Trans-Fat and Cardiovascular Disease: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28645222

Information on Food Additives: https://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/FoodAdditivesIngredients/default.htm

FDA GRAS List: https://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/GRAS/default.htm

FDA CFR-Code of Federal Regulations: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm

Bleached Flour: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=137.105&SearchTerm=flour

Grain versus Grass Fed Beef: https://www.beefmagazine.com/beef-quality/grass-fed-vs-grain-fed-ground-beef-no-difference-healthfulness

Malaysian Palm Oil Board: http://www.mpob.gov.my/

Comments

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  • Mary Jaimes-Serrano 5 years, 1 month ago

    I like the examples you made here. I had no idea, as I am sure most people do not, that a strawberry was such a complex fruit. I think that we all see these big names and think no that has to be bad. Thank you for the facts. I have to admit I do not think a lot about the ingredients that make up the food I eat. I try to eat fresh fruits and vegetables as much as possible. However, when I can't I am a little leery of knowing what all of those big words are in my food. If I knew just half of them I might starve. After reading this though, I may look a little further into exactly what is in the food I consume. Thank you for sharing.

  • No name 4 years, 10 months ago

    This is why it is always important to do your own research on things. A lot of phrases we believe say one thing are really saying something else entirely.