Panera is exceptional on additives: across 256 ingredient statements not one food item has an artificial dye, flavor, preservative or sweetener, and every hit was a fountain drink. The catch is seed oils, in 155 items, almost all via dressings and spreads rather than a fryer, since Panera has no fryer.
Panera is the cleanest chain this project has looked at on additives and one of the worst on seed oils. Across 256 published ingredient statements, not one food item contains an artificial dye, artificial flavor, artificial preservative or artificial sweetener - no high fructose corn syrup, no mono- and diglycerides, no DATEM, no MSG, no BHA, BHT or TBHQ. Every additive hit was a fountain drink or a blended coffee, never the food. The catch is seed oils: 155 items contain one, soybean in 120, canola in 106, sunflower in 46 and cottonseed in 26, and they sit in the dressings, spreads and mayo rather than in a fryer, because Panera has no fryer at all. The bread is genuinely clean - Country Rustic Sourdough is flour, water, fermented flour, salt, yeast, vinegar, culture and enzymes, nothing else. Only about six real meals dodge seed oil entirely, among them the Grilled Cheese and the Chicken Noodle Soup.