Panera Bread has announced to extend its clean commitment to remove ‘No No List’ additives across its entire portfolio of nearly 50 grocery products.
As part of the move, the company will do away with the remaining artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, artificial preservatives and colors from artificial sources in its Panera at Home products.
The Panera at Home portfolio includes refrigerated soup, mac & cheese, pasta, and salad dressings in addition to artisan frozen bread, sliced sandwich bread and coffee.
Panera expects the exercise to be completed by the end of 2016.
The company has already committed to eliminate such additives in its food menu across its nearly 2,000 US bakery cafes by the end of this year.
Panera wellness and food policy director aid Sara Burnett said: "Much of the work that we've done to simplify recipes in our bakery cafes has set a standard for Panera at Home products.
"However, the challenges in the consumer packaged goods space are unique, where artificial additives have long been used to preserve taste and appearance.
"For us, the answer was often simple. For instance, we decided early on to use refrigeration to help extend shelf life for products like our soups and salad dressings. Where necessary, we've relied on natural preservatives-such as rosemary extract-to do the job."
Panera said that its refrigerated soup business has a market share of 35% in the category, while the Panera at Home grocery line includes nearly 50 products available at select retailers across the country.
As of 29 March 2016, the company had are 1,997 bakery cafes in 46 states and in Ontario, Canada operating under the Panera Bread, Saint Louis Bread Co or Paradise Bakery & Café names.
