Taco Bell and Pizza Hut have decided to ban artificial ingredients, joining competitors like Panera Bread and Subway.
Both restaurants will be remaking their menu and phasing out artificial ingredients starting this year. Taco Bell will get rid of food dye yellow No. 6 in their nacho cheese, as they plan to remove all artificial ingredients and colors from their food by the end of the year.
Pizza Hut is getting rid of all artificial colors and flavors with the exception of some local menu items by the end of July.
Pizza has been working on this change for the past year, and is redeveloping their products so that the flavor won’t be compromised.
“Today’s consumer more than ever before wants to understand the ingredients that make up the foods that they enjoy,” Pizza Hut CEO David Gibbs said in a company statement.
The Taco Bell changes will apply to 95 percent of their menu, not including drinks, or co-branded products, i.e. ones made with Doritos. The taco chain’s avocado ranch dressing and red tortillas will no longer contain dyes. The beef will contain real black pepper, rather than artificial pepper flavor. High fructose corn syrup and palm oil will also be banned.
Other food companies will probably be making similar changes, says Michelle Greenwald, a marketing professor at Columbia Business School in an article for USA Today. “These other places don’t want to be losing out to the Paneras and the Chipotles,” she says.
Consumers also care about how their food is made and where it comes from. “People are reading labels more,” Greenwald says. “If you’re conditioned to do that at home, well then you’re curious about what you’re eating outside.”
While these changes do not make the food from these restaurants healthy by any means, it is still an important step in the right direction for the food industry.
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Chipotle removes GMOs from food.
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Costco is working to ban antibiotics from meat.
Wendy’s removes soda from kid’s meals.
Burger King to remove soda from kid’s meals.
REFERENCES:
1. “Taco Bell, Pizza Hut Nix Artificial Ingredients.” USA Today. Gannett, 26 May 2015. Web. 21 June 2015.
2. “Exception to Taco Bell Shift on Artificial Ingredients.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 June 2015. Web. 21 June 2015.
