Quizno's reluctantly releases nutritional data

[Robin Garr]

Interesting stuff here from Fast Food News, a sporadically published industry blog. I had no idea that Quizno's was fighting the nutritional disclosure regs so hard, but the numbers that have finally come out give us a good explanation. Can you say "Call your cardiologist," boys and girls?


At long last, Quizno's has revealed the nutritional information for their toasted subs, salads, soups and bread bowls.

We wrote about Quizno's lack of nutritional data back in March of 2006. Until this week they were the largest fast food restaurant chain that did not publish their nutrition data.

Quizno's doesn't make it easy or convenient to find the nutritional information on their website. Most fast food restaurant chains have a full nutritional data chart available; Quizno's only offers the data 1 sandwich at a time... it makes for lots of clicking. And the sauce and cheese data is only added to the totals after you do some more clicking. (see Note below for instructions on finding it on their site.)

<b>To make it a bit simplier we've posted Quizno's nutritional information all in one chart</b>.

Some noteworthy discoveries in Quizno's nutrition data:

* Quizno's Tuna Melt has the highest calorie and fat totals of any of their sandwichs! The large Tuna Melt has over 2,000 calories and 175 grams of fat!! (The regular size has 1,420 calories and 118 grams of fat, the small 770 calories and 60 grams of fat!)

* 2 of the 5 salads Quizno's serves have 1,000 calories. The Roasted Chicken with Honey Mustard Flatbread Salad has 1120 calories and 76 grams of fat!

* Quizno's large Prime Rib Cheesesteak Sub has 1,770 calories and 116 grams of fat (that's 1030 calories from fat). It also has 2.5 grams trans fat.

* Quizno's Turkey Bacon Guacamole Sub with reduced fat Buttermilk Ranch dressing has a whopping 4530 mg of sodium! The US FDA recommends less than 2,400 mg of Sodium per day for adults. Quizno's has 31 items with over 2,400 mg of Sodium.

* Quizno's also has 34 items with over 50 grams of fat.

If you suspected that Quizno's didn't publish this data sooner because the calorie, fat and sodium counts were high, you were right.

Note: To find the data on Quizno's website, go to Quizno's menu page and then click on a food category (like Subs), then find "Show Nutrition Information" at the bottom. This will cause a link to "Nutritional Information" to appear under each food item. Click one of these links will open the nutritional information in a new window. Then you'll have to check the boxes next to things like dressing and cheese to get the grand total for the item.

I don't know exactly how long the Quizno's data has been available. I discovered it after a tip from a Fast Food News reader. You can bet Quizno's won't be promoting it. US Food Policy has also written about the new Quizno's data, too.

I wish that all places including local places would have a list so people could see just what they are eating. I think that people would be surprised. also at least most chain places do have a list so you can make a decision on what you will eat and not.

Robert,

I would love to have the knowledge too, but unfortunately it's far too expensive/diificult for local non-chains to provide this. To post the nutritional data, you have to send each food to an independent lab and pay a lot to have each food analyzed. And, irregardless of the cost, consistency is a big issue: to give people the nutrional data you have to standardize your recipes and exact preparation (no room for being creative, having specials or adapting methods) or the data would change for each batch. That's the main reason why most restaurants are unable to provide nutrional data.

I do love it though when restaurant use something in their menu to indicate their "healthy" choices.

Deb

You are right...but i think that deep down whether you have a list or not...most people already know just by what it is in the menu that it is good or bad for you. You dont have to be a rocket scientist to figure out just what is good and bad for you....but at least the list helps out even though most people really do not even look at them.

We're eatting at Wild Eggs tomorrow morning, and I guarantee it will probably be the fattiest, highest calorie meal I have all week. And I'm going to love every bite.

Just for the heck of it, I checked out Penn Station and was relatively pleasantly surprised. All but their Tuna Salad come in at less than 15 grams of fat (most way lower) and less than 500 cals. Here's a good web site for that, plus if you go to their home page, it lists virtually all the chains (and they list the points for the WWers).

http://calorielab.com/restaurants/penn-station-east-coast-subs/275

Those high fat and sodium contents are exactly why I try to avoid fast food! Maybe this is why I have noticed a couple Quizno's equipment auctions online recently. Still, there are a lot of independents out there serving food as unhealthy or worse. I predict that in the near future everyone will have to post their nutritional data no matter the difficulty.

Over the past several years the old adage "never trust a skinny chef" has been used with much less frequency. I'm thankful that people are finally recognizing a healthy diet can lead to a longer life. Maybe the new adage will be to trust the skinny chef...