Blaze Fast-Fire’d Pizza announced the launch of its “Keepin’ It Real” initiative, highlighting the company’s commitment to serving food without artificial additives. lans for the new campaign include an opportunity for guests to pledge their own commitment to Keepin’ It Real in 2017, which in turn will unlock a special free Blaze Pizza offer.
On pace to become the nation’s fifth largest pizza chain by 2020, Blaze Pizza has spent the past 18 months working with suppliers to remove artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and high fructose corn syrup from a short list of ingredients in the restaurants. esulting from these efforts, the brand has “nixed the nitrites” in its cured meats, upgraded to salad dressings and garlic without artificial preservatives, switched to “true hue” black olives and banana peppers without artificial colors, and moved to a barbeque sauce made without high fructose corn syrup. Additionally, the company has added Blue Sky cane sugar sodas, which will be offered alongside traditional Coca-Cola products.
“To deliver against our commitment, several of our sources upgraded their recipes just for us. In some cases, we had to seek out new partners,” says Blaze Pizza’s Executive Chef Bradford Kent. “It took months of review before we finally found a banana pepper that met our standards for both color and taste, without artificial colors or preservatives, but it was worth the time invested. You really can taste the difference.”
Consistent with its clean food philosophy, Blaze Pizza’s dough is made from scratch daily using only a few familiar ingredients—unbleached flour, extra-virgin olive oil, filtered water, salt and a touch of sugar. Restaurants use a recipe developed by critically-acclaimed Pizza Chef Kent, which requires a 24-hour fermentation period to produce the signature light-as-air, crisp crust. Additionally, all Blaze restaurants use packaging that is sustainable, including cups, lids and straws made from plant-based materials.
“We believe that food free from artificial additives simply tastes better,” says Jim Mizes, Blaze Pizza president and COO. “We’re fully committed to clean food—and we encourage other national pizza chains to follow suit.”
