In December of 2015, Papa John’s International Inc. announced that its grilled chicken pizza toppings and chicken poppers would consist of poultry raised without human or animal antibiotics and fed on a vegetarian diet by summer 2016. Today, the world's third-largest pizza delivery company celebrates the fulfillment of that promise on its clean label journey.

“When Papa John’s opened its doors in 1984, I had one goal in mind: BETTER INGREDIENTS. BETTER PIZZA. Today, our clean label journey remains an essential part of that promise, and our commitment to our customers is as strong as ever,” said Founder, Chairman and CEO “Papa John” Schnatter. “The completion of the transition to raised without antibiotics chicken toppings on our pizza and poppers is just one better ingredient moment, and we’re excited to show our customers what we have in store for the future.”

This change comes as part of the company’s ongoing efforts to address consumer preferences, which have evolved to demand and expect higher-quality ingredients.

“We’ve taken a lot of steps to bring our customers transparency around our ingredients,” said Sean Muldoon, Papa John’s Chief Ingredient Officer. “Since December, hundreds of hours were spent on product development and testing to bring our better grilled chicken pizza toppings and poppers to consumers. This is a proud day for Papa John’s.”

Over the years, Papa John's has solidified its clean label leadership position by becoming the first national pizza delivery chain to announce the removal of the following ingredients across its entire food menu:

• Preservatives BHA and BHT;

• Flavor enhancer MSG;

• Cellulose and partially hydrogenated oils;

• Artificial flavors and synthetic colors; and

• High fructose corn syrup.

This fall customers will hear more from the company about the clean ingredient commitments including an effort around cage-free eggs. Papa John’s is committed to converting to cage-free eggs by the end of 2016. These future changes are just some of the ingredient areas Papa John’s is exploring to deliver on its promise of “better.”

In June, Papa John's was ranked No. 1 among QSR-pizza brands in customer satisfaction and product quality. The 2016 recognition marks the 15th time out of the previous 17 years that the pizza brand led the pizza industry in overall customer satisfaction. The brand’s commitment to quality is a journey not a destination and the desire to be “better” is certainly not finished.