Papa John's Just Became The First Pizza Chain To Ditch Artificial Flavors And Coloring

Papa John's has announced that the pizza chain will be removing all artificial flavors and coloring from its menus. In May 2015, Pizza Hut promised to get rid of most artificial ingredients, making Papa John's the first nationwide pizza chain to do so completely.The company has also planned to remove antibiotics from its chicken and poppers by the spring.

"We closed out 2015 announcing our commitment to serve chicken raised without antibiotics and are ringing in the New Year artificial-flavor and synthetic-color free," said Sean Muldoon, Papa John's  Senior vice president of research and development. "We're so proud to be able to show our customers how much we care about what they're eating. This exemplifies Papa John's continued efforts to deliver high-quality products. It's the right thing to do."

Papa John's, similarly to Panera, keeps adding to a growing list of "no-no" ingredients that customers won't find in their food. For Papa John's this includes trans-fats, MSG, meat fillers, BHA or BHT (both are artificial preservatives), and partially hydrogenated oils. Partially hydrogenated oils and trans-fats were banned by the FDA in June 2015. It has also been proven that MSG has lower sodium content than table salt and regular consumption will not have any ill health effects.