Papa John's Pizza

Appears Clean

So excited to hear back from Papa John's and hear that they do not use pan spray and their ingredients look clean! They were approved for years but then stopped filling out forms. 

They e-mailed me back right away and sent me a bunch of information about their products. 

We get the hand-tossed cheese pizza.  The thin crust has corn syrup (listed as dextrose) which we avoid. Make sure you ask them to sub a pizza sauce for the garlic sauce they give you on the side.  The garlic sauce has artificial flavors.  I have a recipe for their garlic sauce. 

Recipe: Papa John's Garlic Pizza Dipping Sauce

If you are stage one, you can order the pizza with no sauce and extra cheese and then just dip in homemade garlic sauce.  I tell my kids it's garlic bread with cheese. 

And apparently, skip the pepper! Yellow dye! I didn't know that. My daughter used to occasionally eat those. And, no pepperoni either.  We just always get cheese.

If you have a party coming up, I freeze a couple slices in a big zip lock bag.  Then pull it out and heat it up at the party. 

You can sign up online to earn points and coupons. I've gotten two free pizzas this year already and we rarely order from there anymore (GFCF now).  We hadn't ordered for a while, so they sent us a coupon for a free pizza.  Last year, the correct team won the Super Bowl so they sent out a coupon for a free pizza to all their subscribers.

Company Response:

Thank you for contacting Papa Johns'. 

 
Listed below are the various ingredient statements, for the main ingredients used on our pizzas as well as a list of those ingredients with high fructose corn syrup.
If there are any others you would like, please let me know and I will be most happy to forward.

All of our pizzas and bread sticks are baked on "pizza screens". The pizzas are not baked in a pan and thus we do not need to spray the screen with any type of oil or pan release.

Thanks again for your interest in Papa John's.

Research & Development 

Pizza Dough: Unbleached enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, wheat starch, ascorbic acid, enzyme, niacin, iron as ferrous sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, sugar, soybean oil, salt, yeast [fungal or bacterial derivatives – NO animal derivatives]. No trans fat.
CONTAINS: Wheat
Dustinator: Wheat flour, semolina, soybean oil.
Contains: WHEAT

Pizza Sauce: Vine-ripened fresh tomatoes, sunflower oil, sugar, salt, spices [oregano, black pepper, basil], garlic*, extra virgin olive oil and citric acid. *Dehydrated No trans fat.

Thin Crust: Unbleached Flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour), water, soybean oil, cultured wheat starch, yeast, salt, natural and artificial flavors (milk), dextrose, calcium propionate (preservative) and soy lecithin.
Contains: Milk, Soy, Wheat

Cheese: Part-skim mozzarella cheese (pasteurized milk, cultures, salt, enzymes [chymax – NOT animal derived]),modified food starch [derived from corn], powdered cellulose (added to prevent caking), whey protein concentrate, sodium citrate, sodium propionate (added as a preservative). Contains MILK

Pepperoncini: Pepperoncinis, water, distilled vinegar, salt, citric acid, sodium bisulfite and sodium benzoate, Yellow #5.

Pepperoni: Pork and beef, salt, spices [red pepper, black pepper, fennel, anise, garlic, oregano, rosemary], natural flavoring [mustard and spice extractives (anise, black pepper, fennel, garlic, oregano, red pepper)], dextrose, lactic acid starter culture, oleoresin of paprika, natural hickory smoke flavoring, sodium nitrite, BHA, BHT, citric acid

Banana Peppers : Sliced banana peppers, water, salt, acetic acid, sodium benzoate (as a preservative), calcium chloride, sodium metabisulfite (color protectant), FD&C Yellow #5.

Products with high fructose corn syrup: BBQ Dipping Sauce, Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce, Buffalo Dipping Sauce, Honey Chipotle Wing Sauce, Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce, Ranch Dipping Sauce, Spinach Alfredo Sauce