Yum! Brands, Inc. subsidiary Pizza Hut says it will remove additional artificial ingredients from its food by the end of 2017. The announcement comes roughly one year after the national pizza chain cut artificial flavors and colors from its pizzas and removed 2.5 million pounds of salt from ints ingredients over the last five years.
Now, the company—which operates 6,400 restaurants in the US—will remove preservatives BHA and BHT from its meats by the end of 2016. Pizza Hut will also remove artificial preservatives from its cheese by March 2017 and chicken used for its pizzas will be free of human antibiotics by next year.
“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,” says Jeff Fox, chief brand and concept officer, Pizza Hut.
In addition to these ingredient simplifications, Pizza Hut has already eliminated partially hydrogenated oils 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.