Panera Bread has announced that it will post calorie information on all company-owned Panera Bread and Saint Louis Bread Co. bakery-cafe menu boards by April 2010. The bakery-cafe concept expects franchise-operated locations to follow suit and by the end of 2010.
"We are pleased to be the first national concept to provide this level of transparency to customers," Scott Davis, Panera's chief concept officer, said in a news release. "It comes from our commitment to providing nutrition information and wholesome foods our customers can trust."
The menu labeling effort is part of Panera's long-standing dedication to providing customers with nutritious choices and the information to make wise decisions for themselves.
"As we've been introducing our new menu boards across the country, customers have responded very favorably," Davis said. "We've seen them gravitating towards options that allow them to customize their meals such as our You Pick Two where they can pair smaller portions of our soups, salads or sandwiches to create a meal with fewer calories."
"This whole initiative prompted us to take an even closer look at our menu offerings," Davis said. "The result was we improved the nutritional content and ingredients in several of our menu items. We view it as a ‘win-win' for both our customers and Panera."
In addition to the calorie information on the menu boards, full nutrition information is available via an innovative nutrition calculator on the company's Web site, where customers can customize their meals and make modifications to fit their preferences. Customers also can find more complete nutrition information in all Panera Bread and Saint Louis Bread Co. bakery-cafes by asking an associate to see a nutritional binder.
"Our efforts in this area will continue to evolve," said Davis. "We support initiatives that promote greater transparency for our customers."
