If you’re accustomed to bacon and sriracha on your salads, it’s time to step out of the interminably long line at Sweetgreen.
The hip salad chain, founded nine years ago in Washington DC, this week announced it was removing the two ingredients to better align with its corporate health policy, which emphasizes rethinking the supply chain and promoting plant-based foods. The items were officially removed from the menu on Tuesday (May 24) at all 44 locations across seven states. It added portobello mushrooms.
The menu move is part of a larger campaign called, “Make America Healthy Again,” which aims to influence the US food system. Bacon, for instance, is produced from factory system many have deemed systemically inhumane toward pigs. Pork production also leaves a hefty environmental footprint.
As for sriracha, Sweetgreen thinks it’s found a healthier substitute.
“The second ingredient in sriracha is sugar, so we removed it from our recipes, replacing it with the natural, sugar-free heat of dried chiles,” the company says in its health policy.
Of course, the sneaky culprit that can stymie any salad is at the end of the line, in the dressings. Servers ask consumers whether they want a small, medium or large amount of dressing, and without specifying serving sizes it can be hard to gauge just how much sugar or fat each salad gets. According to the nutrition facts of some of the Sweetgreen dressings the sugar content isn’t far off from a serving of sriracha.