News

Canada’s Extreme Pita earns Health Check approval

April 27, 2011

Mississauga, Ontario-based Extreme Pita has added six new menu items that meet the nutrition criteria of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada's Health Check program.

By offering healthier options and providing nutritional information, Extreme Pita, which franchises more than 265 locations across North America, is the first quick-service restaurant in Canada to join Health Check.

The new menu items — two pitas for adults and four for children — meet the rigorous Health Check standards, including low sodium and fat content. Extreme Pita will now prominently display the nutritional and caloric information of all its pitas on its store menus, the only QSR in Canada to do so.

"Extreme Pita has always stood for inspired healthy eating and our new menu items set a whole new standard of transparency to help customers make informed decisions," said Alex Rechichi, CEO and co-founder, Extreme Brandz, parent company of Extreme Pita. "Maintaining good health is a top priority for Canadians. It's time that the fast-food industry keeps up with what is happening in food labeling by revealing and detailing calories and sodium percentages clearly on their menus."

To meet the Health Check criteria, Extreme Pita worked closely with its vendors and the Heart and Stroke Foundation for more than a year to ensure the new menu items would meet all the requirements.

The amount of sodium reduced through the introduction of the new Health Check menu items represents approximately 1 ton annually across Canada.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation's Health Check Program was created to help Canadians make healthy choices. The Foundation's team of registered dietitians evaluate each grocery product or restaurant menu item against nutrient criteria. If they meet these standards, they are allowed to join the program.

The Health Check pitas are now available in all Extreme Pita restaurants and include the following items:

• Grilled Chicken
• Thai Beef Pitas
• Sweet Little Chicken (kids' menu)
• BBQ4U (kids' menu)
• Beffosaurus Rex (kids' menu)
• Fee-Fi-Fo- Hummus (kids' menu)