Panera Outlines Healthy Food Policy - Analyst Blog

In a bid to shift to healthier food alternatives, bakery-café operator Panera Bread Company PNRA revealed a new comprehensive Food Policy. The company's Food Policy now includes the removal of additives from its ingredients along with a menu which includes information regarding calories and ingredients.

Panera's Food Policy is consistent with the growing awareness for healthy diet among consumers. The St. Louis-based company intends to do away with colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives from its menu by 2016-end. The company has also pledged to use clean ingredients – devoid of additives such as artificial transfats and monosodium glutamate MSG.

The company also intends to offer transparent menus to inform customers about the ingredients and calories in the food they buy. in fact, over the past decade, Panera has been obtaining its meat from animals that have been fed vegetarian-based and personalized diets without the use of antibiotics, and raised in reduced-stress environments.

Health consciousness is inevitably increasing among the masses and Americans are gradually refraining from food with higher calories, fat and sugars but low on vitamins, minerals and other micro-nutrients. As a result, the awareness for healthier food and beverage alternatives is growing. Therefore, more and more food companies are changing their priorities to focus more on ”good for you” products.

Last month, McDonald's Corp. MCD listed its new sustainability goals for 2020 as per the rules of Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef – an organization to advance continuous improvement in sustainability of the global beef. The fast food giant outlined the global criteria for sustainable beef production and also announced plans to purchase verified sustainable beef by 2016. Additionally, McDonald's intends to align its business to make it more environment-friendly.   

With McDonald's Corp. and Panera's Food Policy leading the way in delivering low-carbohydrate food, we believe this might just change the way the U.S. fast food industry delivers its menu.

Panera currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Better-ranked stocks in the same sector are Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc. FRGI and Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. TAST. Both these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).