Popeyes includes food quality commitments in new sustainability plan

Popeyes includes food quality commitments in new sustainability plan

Popeyes has announced new food quality commitments for the next five years as part of the Restaurant Brands for Good sustainability plan.

The commitments are part of the brand’s work to “serve responsibly sourced, high quality, and great tasting food every day while continuously working to reducing its environmental footprint.”

Real ingredients

Popeyes goal is working to remove artificial colours, flavours, and preservatives from fried chicken menu items in the U.S. by the end of 2022 and in Canada by the end of 2023.

Antibiotics

The company is committed to eliminating antibiotics important to human medicine from their chicken supply chain in the U.S. and Canada by the end of 2021. This new sourcing policy supports the brand’s approach to animal welfare which includes supplier guidance on the responsible use of antibiotics in food animals. Popeyes will be working closely with suppliers to implement the new policy in their chicken supply chain throughout the year.

Cage-free eggs

Popeyes has committed to using 100 per cent cage-free eggs including whole eggs, liquid eggs, egg products, and egg ingredients in all corporate-run and franchisee-operated restaurants in Canada by the end of 2025.

Removal of EPS foam, transition to sustainable palm oil 

From a packaging perspective, this year Popeyes is removing all expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam cups globally and replacing them with paper cups. The brand is working towards implementing requirements for all approved fibre-based packaging to come from certified or recycled sources globally by the end of 2021.

Lastly, Popeyes now sources palm oil (both directly sourced and for all branded food products with greater than one per cent palm oil or palm kernel oil as an ingredient) which is Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) mass balance certified or covered by RSPO certification and credits for its entire menu globally, per the brand’s palm oil sourcing policy.

According to a media release, the commitment to contribute to the production of certified sustainable palm oil is part of the company’s ambition to support deforestation-free supply chains.

“Popeyes is known for its culinary tradition and craveable chicken, and now people will start to know more about what’s behind the food they love. At Popeyes, we carefully select our ingredients and don’t take shortcuts on quality and that’s why we have been working hard to launch our new food quality commitment,” said Rob Manuel, Popeyes Canada general manager.

To celebrate these milestones, Popeyes launched Inside the Kitchen, a new digital campaign which highlights real employees and gives consumers a behind the scenes look at the real preparation process.

Published at Tue, 16 Mar 2021 20:45:12 +0000