Panera Further Cleans Up Menu By Banning Artificial Everything From Their Soups

Earlier this year, Panera announced a pledge to gradually overhaul the ingredients in their current menu and convert to an entirely "clean" menu. What does that mean for the average hungry customer? You'll find most artificial preservatives, colors, and additives on the Panera "No-No" list: aka ingredients they've ditched or are looking to get rid of. The latest step in Panera's menu cleanse is a soup makeover: The soup menu will no longer contain artificial ingredients like hydrolyzed soy and corn protein, maltodextrin, and sodium phosphate.

Specifically, they're highlighting the brand-new clean broccoli Cheddar soup, one of the most popular soups at the sandwich chain, which now is made with zero sodium phosphate (which originally could be found in the Cheddar).

"We are committed to being clean by the end of 2016," Panera head chef Dan Kish told The Daily Meal. "The most challenging part has been legacy products that customers love and making sure we're able to replicate that taste experience but also stay true to that clean mission... We are happy to know we may have had some influence on how America eats. Clean food is good for everybody whether we make it or somebody else does."

The final step of this transparent cleansing process is to replace no-no ingredients in sandwiches, which will probably happen sometime later this year.