News

Pizza Hut pledges to halt use of BHA/BHT, some preservatives and antibiotics

June 1, 2016

Pizza Hut is getting on board with an industry-wide movement to cut the less healthful ingredients out of its menu, according to a company press release. This week the Yum! Brand said in a news release that it is committed to removing the following from use in its restaurants:

• BHA/BHT from all meats by the end of July 2016.
• Artificial preservatives from cheese by the end of March 2017.
• Antibiotics important to human medicine from chicken for its pizzas by the end of March 2017.

This week's announcement comes roughly one year after Pizza Hut became the first national pizza chain to remove artificial flavors and colors from its core pizzas in May 2015. The chain has also removed 2.5 million pounds of salt from its ingredients over the last five years.

"We believe that Pizza Hut food shouldn't only taste great, but you should feel great about it, too," said Pizza Hut Chief Brand and Concept Officer Jeff Fox. "Our enhanced and expanded commitment to superior restaurant-quality food is the result of listening closely to our customers, and they say that these are things that they do want in their pizzas. … We … believe it is important to let customers know exactly where their food comes from and how it's made."

The chain, for example, has partnered with some of the same family farms in Kansas to grow the wheat for its dough since the late 1950s and still harvests tomatoes from some of the same fields in California's Central Valley that its founders did more than 50 years ago. In fact, most of its cheese is made by the same family run cheese company that its used for decades, according to the release.

Website helps consumers see inside menu items

To give customers access to data about its ingredients, the brand recently created a microsite,  PizzaHut.com/RestaurantQuality, which highlights the genesis of its ingredients and commitment to its heritage.

As an example, company representatives pointed to the mushrooms they use, which go from farm to pizza in as little as 48 hours. Their tomatoes, according to the news release, are starting the process of becoming pizza sauce within four hours of harvest.

Pizza Hut had already eliminated partially hydrogenated oils (also known as artificial trans fats) and MSG. Likewise, about 15 percent of the restaurant's pizzas have one-third of the daily recommended sodium allowance, and that will grow to 20 percent of its pizzas by 2020, according to the release.

The company said it does not use fillers in meat toppings, and its meatballs have no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. The chain also does not add sugar or oil to its pizza marinara sauce, and its cheese is 100-percent whole milk mozzarella.

The new healthful menu commitments come as the brand starts a plan to redesign 700 restaurants annually, with the goal of operating 8,000 U.S. locations in six years. That's an increase of 27 percent from its current 6,400 domestic restaurants.