Pizza Hut makes new food commitments
The brand announced that it will remove BHA/BHT, artificial preservatives from cheese, and antibiotics from chicken from its list of ingredients.
Pizza Hut pledged to eliminate BHA/BHT from all meats by end of July 2016, artificial preservatives from cheese by end of March 2017, as well as antibiotics important to human medicine from chicken for its pizzas by end of March 2017.
“We believe that Pizza Hut food shouldn’t only taste great, but you should feel great about it, too,” said Jeff Fox, chief brand and concept officer, Pizza Hut.
“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 not want in their pizzas.
“Providing our customers with restaurant quality ingredients is something that has been at the core of Pizza Hut since the very first restaurant opened in Wichita 58 years ago. It’s so fundamental to our superior restaurant quality beliefs that we rarely feel the need to talk about it. That said, 58 years later, we are extremely proud to say that we still get our vegetables, our meats, our tomatoes, our flour, our cheese – everything that makes a great pizza – from top suppliers around the world. We are constantly working to lead the industry in this area and believe it is important to let customers know exactly where their food comes from and how it’s made.”
“The decisions made by our Founders involving relationships and partners have a lot to do with why we are still the most loved pizza restaurant in the world,” said Fox.
“It comes from a fundamental truth about Pizza Hut: We started as a restaurant and maintain a restaurant-first mentality in everything we do. From how pizzas are prepared, how customers are served and how the entire experience is presented. We strongly believe in our foundation of being a restaurant that serves people, not just pizza, and that personal service is more important to our customers today than ever before. That’s why we are proudly making advancements in our food commitments and our dedication to serve.”
To further demonstrate the significance of the move, Pizza Hut has created a microsite dedicated to its food story at www.PizzaHut.com/RestaurantQuality. The site spotlights its ingredients, heritage, innovations and more. Customers can learn about where Pizza Hut ingredients come from and how the pizzas are made. For example, mushrooms go from farm to Pizza Hut pizza in as little as 48 hours, and sun-soaked tomatoes begin the process of becoming Pizza Hut sauce within approximately four hours of being picked from the vine.
In addition to these ingredient simplifications, Pizza Hut has already eliminated partially hydrogenated oils (also known as artificial trans fats) and MSG. Currently, 15 percent of the restaurant’s pizzas have just one third of the daily recommended dietary allowance for sodium, and 20 percent of its pizzas will meet that criteria by 2020.
The pizza restaurant does not use any fillers in any of its meat toppings. Its Italian sausage is all natural and sourced from U.S. farmers, and its meatballs are free of any artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Pizza Hut also does not add any sugar or oil to its pizza marinara sauce, and its cheese is made from 100 percent whole milk mozzarella.
