What Papa John’s doesn’t want you to know about their food

Maybe Papa John’s doesn’t use chemical dough conditioners in their pizza dough, corn syrup or sugar in the sauce, or preservatives and cheap fillers in the meat toppings. Maybe they go the extra mile to make a high-quality pizza that’s as close to homemade as possible. Although the fact that Papa John’s garlic sauce, which comes in little packages, is made with a slew of additives – mono and diglycerides, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and the preservatives sodium benzoate and calcium disodium EDTA – does not inspire confidence.

By not disclosing what’s in its food, Papa John’s is revealing that it doesn’t think too much of its customers. It is either asking customers for blind trust or assuming people are too stupid and complacent to ask questions. When we do ask questions, they refuse to answer. At least that was my experience, both when I approached Papa John’s as a journalist and a customer. This strikes me as a foolish approach in an age when American eaters are demanding more transparency (see GMO labeling) when it comes to food, not less. For some reason, Papa John’s has failed to realize that when you hoist your entire brand up on the idea of high-quality food, you’d better be able to back it up.

While Papa John’s is the most egregious example of this marketing mendacity, they’re hardly alone. Olive Garden wants you to believe that eating at one of their restaurants means you’re getting authentic Italian cuisine. Many of its “chefs” have been trained at the company’s Culinary Institute of Tuscany, located, we are told, in a “quaint 11th century Tuscan village.” But Italian cuisine is notoriously fresh, individually prepared and lacking in shortcuts. Are Olive Garden’s offerings anything close to this? They, too, won’t tell you. The allergen chart on the website, though, reveals that there’s soy in the meat sauce and chicken parm, suggesting that Olive Garden’s specialties are closer to Chef Boyardee than something Benedetta Vitali came up with. Applebee’s, Cheesecake Factory, Chili’s and TGIF’s are some of the other sit-down chains that also won’t tell you what’s in their food.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *