Bang! Rusty Coco is the co-owner and Chief Food Officer of Jason’s Deli and when an unwelcome High Fructose Corn Syrup peddler arrives in Jason’s Deli - Rusty reacts in the only way he knows how…
High Fructose Corn Syrup Eliminated
Jason’s Deli eliminated High Fructose Corn Syrup from their food in 2008. They had already eliminated trans-fat and MSG and pride themselves in serving up healthy, organic, tasty salads, sandwiches and soups all across America. Visit a Jason’s Deli near you and taste the difference healthy food makes!
I joined several others from Jason’s Deli for a trip to California last week to tour our produce vendors. The following is a great article that our Director of Purchasing penned.
Cheers, Rusty
Hello folks,
We just returned from our annual trip to California to visit our produce growers and look for new and exciting items at a produce show. It was truly an amazing experience to stand in those fields of lush green and see what all goes into bringing that one head of lettuce or one strawberry to market.
A lot of time is spent in greenhouses searching for the right combination of plants to produce the highest quality possible thru natural cross breeding. It can take up to 5 YEARS from the first development of a seed variety to roll out for planting outside of test fields. As you may know, the farms transition to various areas of the country depending on the season. So a seed variety that does well in Salinas, CA may not do well in Yuma, AZ due to humidity, soil, or temperature change. All of our growers constantly work to improve their version of a seed variety. They have a relentless pursuit to make a variety better than the one before.
Soil beds are prepared with drip irrigation systems in most areas for maximum water conservation. The crops are rotated with each planting to maintain high levels of nutrients in the soils, while boxes are packed and palletized right there in the field.
Jason’s Deli has developed strong business relationships with our growers and it is awesome to see their commitment to highest quality produce as it is a reflection of their brand. We believe that we have aligned ourselves with some of the finest growers in the world…not only from a quality standpoint but from a food safety standpoint as well and sharing many of the same core values. At the same time, they are dealing with a strong variable called Mother Nature who occasionally spins a kink in their plans.
I have attached a couple photos to give you a better idea of what it looks like.
On July 27th we hosted our second ever Tweet-Up at our Round Rock deli! A gigantic “THANKS” goes out to everyone who came to play our trivia game to win an iPhone. It was tons of fun, and we really enjoy getting to play a hand in bringing people together. Yes, we are in the sandwich business, but as our founder Joe Tortorice, Jr. likes to say – we’re really in the “people business.” Check out our Tweet-Up on You Tube.
This Monday, July 27, from 11 am to 1 pm we will host our 2nd ever Tweet-Up at our deli in Round Rock, TX.A big thank you goes to Twitter follower Keith, who suggested it.This time around, we’re upping the fun factor with an in-house trivia game, and giving away an iPhone for the grand prize!!
Anybody is welcome to play the trivia game, but we do have a few rules.There is no time limit on answering the questions, but the trivia forms must be turned in to one of the hosts by 1:00 p.m.; trivia players must be dining at the Round Rock deli; and it’s every man or woman for themselves – meaning no lifelines, phone-a-friend, etc. It’s perfectly fine to search for answers using a phone or laptop. If there is a tie, a drawing will determine the iPhone winner.
Do you want to do a Tweet-Up at a Jason’s deli in your area? Tweet us @jasonsdeli, or email Madison.boozer@jasonsdeli.com. We love people, and love helping bring them together!
Restaurants are big users…water, paper, electricity, gasoline, etc. We have a long way to go but we are making strides on the journey to be better stewards of the earth we all share.
We use more recycled paper products now than in previous years. Overall our continuous effort to use recycled paper has saved the equivalent of 21,223 trees and it doesn’t stop there either. In 2008, Jason’s deli saved over 9 million gallons of water, nearly 5.5 million kilowatts of energy, nearly 800,000 pounds of air pollution and over 600,000 gallons of oil.
Just by switching many of the paper products we use to recycled paper.
To rephrase Astronaut Neil Armstrong, “That’s one small step for earth, one giant leap for our delis.”
The Centers for Disease Control is telling us that nearly one out of three children in the U.S. ages 2 to 19 is overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. Unless we change this, we’re going to raise generations of really unhealthy kids. Kids and parents need to know more about the food they eat and how to eat healthier. As restaurant owners, we have a responsibility to do the right thing and help fight childhood obesity. We lowered the sodium, saturated fat and calories in our kid’s menu. We serve fresh, more natural, less fooled-around-with food.
And we have an announcement! We are going to invite restaurateurs, academics and public health officials to a national summit on childhood obesity next year. We’re scheduled to visit several cities in the next few weeks to talk it up. Stay tuned.
Feeding kids is fun in our delis. We’re also serious about trying to feed them better. We know from our own kids that they have to really like how food tastes or forget it. And, kids like to pick. Our new kid’s menu has more tasty stuff and more choices like organic milk, little dippers and a new chicken wrap. Then we did some good things that kids can’t taste. We cut the menu’s sodium levels by 21%, saturated fat 20%, clogging cholesterol by 17%, reduced total carbs 15% and calories by 10%. It’s all free of nitrites with No nasty artificial trans fats, No processed MSG and No high fructose corn syrup…except in some of the fountain drinks. Jason’s took care of it so parents don’t have to worry. We have plenty enough to worry about as parents.
We have been on a mission since the early 1980’s to make our menu healthier and in the last few quarters, we started our attack on sodium. As of Spring 2009, we lowered the sodium in several (10) of our menu items by an average of 28% and with the introduction of our new Kid’s Menu in April we lowered the sodium there by 21%.
We are definitely not where we want to be with sodium and we are committed to improving what we offer as well as continuously searching for lower sodium options.
At Jason’s we believe in balance, moderation and choices. With no artificial trans fats, no MSG and no HFCS in our food, we are providing our guests with options to make healthier choices for themselves and their families.
In addition, our Salad Bar offers a wide variety of fresh and organic fruits and vegetables – all naturally low in sodium.
For our new Love Bites blog feature, we wanted to spotlight a different Jason’s Deli every week. This week, it’s our Phoenix deli!
The best thing about our Phoenix deli? Besides our talented, friendly staff, it’s gotta be that there are SIX locations! That makes it super easy and convenient to find a healthy, fresh place to have lunch or dinner.
We know how difficult it can be to find a restaurant that serves healthy food. But with Jason’s Deli, we have countless items to choose from, many of which are organic. We pride ourselves on the fact that none of our food contains any trans fats, MSG or high fructose corn syrup.
So if you’re in the Phoenix area, visit us! We’ll be more than happy to serve you a tasty sandwich or wrap, pasta with garlic olive oil foccacia bread, stuffed potato or one of the many other items on our menu. We even have a healthy kid’s menu with lots of delicious options for little ones like organic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pizza, pasta and salad! Kids — and adults — love that we always have free ice cream, too.
Jason’s Phoenix Deli Locations
Jason’s Deli Phoenix
10217 North Metro Parkway West
Phoenix, AZ 85051
602-870-8611
I joined several others from Jason’s Deli for a trip to California last week to tour our produce vendors. The following is a great article that our Director of Purchasing penned.
