This article has been corrected.
Papa John’s has gotten rid of high-fructose corn syrup from all of its menu items, becoming the first national pizza chain to do so.
The move applies to all pizza ingredients, pizza toppings, dessert items, and sauce selections, the company said Thursday. It’s part of Papa John’s “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza” initiative, which seeks to use only healthy, quality ingredients.
“We’ve always strived for high quality ingredients in our pizzas and continue our aggressive push toward cleaner ingredients and menu offerings,” Sean Muldoon, the company’s chief ingredient officer, said in a statement. “We work tirelessly to set the industry’s gold standard for pizza ingredient quality, and this is the next step in fulfilling our promise to deliver better ingredients.”
Papa John’s has devoted more than $100 million annually to clean up its menu, homing in on 14 different ingredients to banish by the end of this year. The chain eliminated artificial flavors and synthetic colors from its menu in January and established a quality guarantee in February, promising replace any pizza that doesn’t meet customers’ standards.
Papa John’s (PZZA) is also working towards transitioning to antibiotic-free chicken by this summer.
Correction: Sean Muldoon is the chief ingredient officer at Papa John’s. A previous version of this article erroneously said Muldoon was CEO of the company.
