News

Pei Wei requests FDA require ingredient disclosure

October 9, 2018

Pei Wei Asian Kitchen has petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to require that restaurants disclose ingredients used in their menu items.

"Pei Wei's Citizen Petition, submitted under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act, requests that the FDA Commissioner amend an existing provision (21 C.F.R. § 101.11(c)(3)) to require restaurants to affirmatively substantiate their nutritional claims by disclosing the recipe or formula for their standard menu items," a company press release stated.

"We aren't the first brand to launch a clean-label initiative, but we feel so strongly about it that we're calling on the FDA to require all restaurant brands to disclose their ingredients," Pei Wei CEO J. Hedrick said in the release. "To me, it's just common sense. The FDA's new menu labeling rule has been well received by the public, and we believe this will be, too."

Pei Wei recently launched "The Wei Forward," a campaign meant to emphasize the restaurant's commitment to fresh ingredients.

The brand also took to social media last month, tweeting a challenge from the Pei Wei tiger mascot to the Panda Express panda mascot to divulge the ingredients of that chain's orange chicken entrée.

According to the press release, there's been no response to date from Panda Express.