Panera Bread CEO Weighs In On FDA's New Rule Banning Trans Fat

The U. S. Food and Drug Administration announced today that all food manufacturers must stop using trans fat within 3 years. While this might be a cause of worry for other food companies, it’s sort of a victory for Panera Bread Co PNRA which 9 years ago became the first food company to remove trans fat from its menu.

Ron Shaich, Panera Bread Chairman & CEO, was on CNBC Tuesday to weigh in on the FDA’s new rule banning trans fat.

Creating Transparent Line In The Sand

“It’s interesting, we announced a year ago our commitment and our food policy,” Shaich began. “We activated it 30 days ago when we announced our clean food policy, which essentially represented a 150 ingredients that you would not find in a Panera. To us it meant essentially creating a simple transparent line in the sand, so, people knew when they walked into a Panera they were going to get food that was clean and food that was minimally processes.”

The Way Change Occurs

He continued, “What’s interesting to me is the way change occurs to the marketplace. We have had [any] number of restaurant concepts that followed us to doing this. We announced it, within a week you had Noodles & Company, you had Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Papa John’s all announcing some versions of what we are trying to do.”

Food That Consumers Trust

“The reality is that consumers want food that they can trust. They want food that’s both good for them and it’s simply good and Panera is moving to continue its two decade policy of doing that. I think, we are going to continue to see others following,” Shaich concluded.