It's Nearly Impossible To Identify Papa John's 'Better Ingredients'

By mrsdkrebs on FlickrA writer who tried to identify the "better ingredients" in Papa John's pizza says she was shut down by the company.

Melanie Warner from US News And World Report says she was curious about the ingredients Papa John's has advertised for so long.

While packaged product companies have to disclose ingredients, restaurants don't, Warner writes.

Still, chains like Taco Bell, McDonald's, and Subway voluntarily provide the information.

Warner went to her local Boulder Papa John's and asked an employee for more information about the ingredients. He directed her to the company's website, but ingredients aren't listed online either.

Finally, Warner left messages with various company representatives but says no one got back to her.

She did gain some insight from a worker named Charlie, however, who told her that the company's "never frozen" mantra is bogus:

"We get deliveries in every three days, so nothing that's in the fridge is more than a few days old. And we form the dough here. It doesn't come ready to go, though it is made in a central facility and then frozen," he told Warner.

Papa John's competitor Pizza Hut has also tried to debunk the "better ingredients" claim.

Pizza Hut sued in 1998, claiming that Papa John's was falsely advertising. A jury sided with Pizza Hut, and the judge demanded Papa John's stop using its slogan.

But Papa John's took the ruling to an appeals court in 2000 and won.

Papa John's defense was that "the ads did not make false statements but instead were statements of personal taste—what pizza tastes like, which kinds taste better," the Associated Press reported at the time.

Pizza Hut took the issue all the way to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case without comment.