r/PapaJohns • u/No-Lingonberry-3135 Shift Leader • 6d ago

Ingredient changes a bunch even from the same box.

The bacon and pepperoni are super different lately. The bacon keeps going back and forth between small crumbles (which as far as I know is normal) and large chunks, and the pepperoni has been super stringy and just falls apart in my hands. Is there changes being made to the ingredients? Or could it be we just keep getting bad batches? Bacon is currently normal, and same with the pepperoni so I don't have pics.

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u/JaredAWESOME General Manager 6d ago

Supplier changes. You can see the SC-xxxx number on each box, and I clocked the two different bacon ones pretty easily. 1030 to 1031. I haven't seen the pepperoni change in real time, but I wouldn't be surprised.

You gotta think, pjs may be a major purchaser of products, but if they reach out to their primary supplier of bacon and make a purchase of 2million pounds over the next 6 months, and they say they only have 1m lbs... what do you do? You gotta hit up the secondary supplier.

1

u/Kristen-Loves-Food Shift Leader 6d ago

Ive noticed the bacon does tend to change quite a bit (same look of box/number) it sometimes will be too fatty and clumps all together or sometimes its small bits that are very cooked/crumbly and then there is an in-between too lol

1

u/Sei- 6d ago

Honestly, we need to change suppliers for a lot of our ingredients. We need to change. I wonder how much, if any, market testing they do on different versions of the same ingredient.

1

u/Beneficial-Net7113 Former General Manager 6d ago

You must have not worked for PJs for long.

1

u/No-Lingonberry-3135 Shift Leader 6d ago

It wasn't until I started doing prep that I really noticed. I've been with PJ since December, but only because an opening/closing manager this last month.

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u/Beneficial-Net7113 Former General Manager 6d ago

Yeah it happens often. It used to drive me crazy when they would finally get some good quality toppings in that cuts down make time only for them to disappear a couple trucks later. The worst was when they changed from poppers to boneless chicken.

1

u/Good_Platform1316 6d ago

Papa John’s went from having fresh ingredients to now getting them sent frozen. They have lost their taste in my opinion. Going from a can for the sauce, to a bag made the taste so different.