Au Bon Pain was recently named the healthiest food chain by Grellin, a website that determines which restaurants have the healthiest menus.
However, UNITE HERE, a labor union, has called Au Bon Pain's nutritional value into question with their campaign No Bon Pain.
Diego Parra, communications specialist with UNITE HERE, said the campaign started in an unusual way.
"We started looking at Au Bon Pain because of a labor dispute in one shop at the Philadelphia Airport," Parra said. "What propelled us was the labor dispute. What is keeping us there now is customers have a right to know what they are eating. Especially when a company is telling them they're providing something when perhaps they're not."
According to No Bon Pain's website, nobonpain.info, many of Au Bon Pain's lunch and dinner hot sandwiches contain more calories than a McDonald's Big Mac and an Au Bon Pain turkey and Swiss sandwich contains 80 percent of the recommended daily value of saturated fat and more than 70 percent of Au Bon Pain's full-size lunch and dinner sandwiches and wraps contain more sodium than a McDonald's quarter pounder.
"Au Bon Pain's brand promise is to provide 'flavorful, healthful, fresh and distinctively delicious food and beverages,'" said a statement on No Bon Pain's website. "It's breaking its promise."
Parra said he does not want to tell students to eat healthy, but provide them with the information they need.
"I don't feel the right to ask anyone to do anything specific," Parra said. "I just want them to know what they are eating."
Paula Doyle, vice president of marketing at Au Bon Pain, said the company is aware of the campaign.
"They've been really trying to disparage our food, but the whole thing really has nothing to do with food," Doyle said. "It has to do with a labor issue with one of our locations in Philadelphia."
Doyle said she does not want to get involved with the issue.
"They've been trying to disparage us in order to influence people who they want to join their union," Doyle said. "That's why we're not really getting involved in a discussion with them."
Glenn Loughridge, director of campus dining, said Au Bon Pain uses many healthy ingredients.
"I'm not saying what the campaign is saying is inaccurate -- if you grabbed certain things off the Au Bon Pain menu and you grabbed a Big Mac, you're probably looking at similar calories," Loughridge said. "But, from a nutrient density standpoint, you're probably better off with the Au Bon Pain sandwich."
Loughridge said Au Bon Pain makes its calorie counts clear.
"You've got whole grain bread, lettuce and tomato, free-range meats," Loughridge said. "Not everything is that way, but by-and-large, they are very transparent with calorie counts."
According to Loughridge, Au Bon Pain provides a variety of foods.
"That's why we have ABP in the first place; they provide a pretty wide selection," Loughridge said. "You can have a breakfast sandwich made with egg whites, low-fat cheese and maybe turkey sausage on a skinny bagel, or you toasted with cheddar cheese on a regular bagel and that's probably a lot more calories."
Loughridge said Tiger Dining provides nutrition information for on-campus dining options.
"Utilize your resources," Loughridge said. "When we created the campus dining app it has lots of calorie information and ingredient lists. That's something we insisted on. We want students to be well-informed about what they're eating."
According to Loughridge, students are responsible for choosing what they eat.
"I can't mandate that you eat healthy," Loughridge said. "I can't say, "There's going to be nothing on campus except for the most healthy foods." As much as I would love to say that, there's a lot of college students who want pizza, they want Chick-fil-A or they want Panda Express. We provide access to healthy options, but it's ultimately up to students to decide where and what they eat."
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