Normally, when a former employee speaks out, it’s in order to spill the beans on some dirty little secret that the company has.
And when it comes to any establishment in the food and beverage industry, those bits of information can be quite damaging.
In the case of this former Panera Bread employee, however, he (or she) chooses to remain anonymous not just because of the potential backlash but because the former employee still patronizes the company’s products. That being said, customers should still be aware of a few things before ordering because not everything is necessarily healthy.
And here’s what the former employee had to share:
1 – The soup contains a lot of sodium.
In fact, the sodium content is so high that most of your daily allowance will already be met in one serving. The employee recalled a time that he recommended soup to an elderly couple during winter and the manager pulled the employee aside, saying, “Never suggest soup to the elderly. The sodium is too high.”
Not only is it bad for senior citizens due to the elevated stroke risk, but people with kidney problems would also do well to avoid the soup.
2 – Pass on the green tea.
While the company has a strict cleaning policy, some things still get overlooked. One of them is the drink dispensers for lemonade and green tea. The soda machine and tea dispensers are cleaned every night but the lemonade and green tea dispensers only get cleaned monthly.
To be clear, the mold that builds up between the dispensing tube and the cooling system doesn’t actually make its way to the beverage, it’s not exactly sanitary.
3 – Order soup after 12 noon.
Panera Bread’s “waste not, want not” philosophy means that leftover soups are stored in the cooler overnight. So if you have a hankering for soup, don’t order immediately when the store opens to avoid getting yesterday’s leftovers.
4 – The pastries are likely frozen.
Bread and baked goods are Panera Bread’s big sellers and they make a big deal about their products being freshly baked. However, because of the sheer volume of demand, a lot of the bakery products are produced off-site and frozen before being delivered to the branch then heated when an order comes in.
However, all of the bread and bagels are really handmade and are never frozen.
5 – You could end up ordering some calorie bombs if you’re not careful.
Since Panera Bread advocates healthy eating and has advertised the fact that it uses only “clean” ingredients, many customers assume that everything on the menu is healthy.point 285 |
However, if you’re not careful, you could end up consuming more calories than you bargained for.point 87 | For example, a Bacon, Egg, and Cheese on Asiago Bagel already come with 700 calories and more than 30 grams of fat.point 181 | If you have Panera Bread’s clam chowder for lunch, you get over 1,000 calories and 50 percent of your daily recommended dosage of sodium.point 301 | 1
If you’re calorie counting, then it would be better to download the Panera Bread app so that you can be appraised of all the nutrition information before your next visit.
But even with all those caveats, which the employee stands by, he/she still retains his/her Panera card and regularly patronizes its products. It’s all about being informed in advance in order not to be caught out on the left field when it comes to your diet.
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