"quiznos" news and stories

Zach Calkins, Vice President of Culinary Development for the sandwich chain Quiznos, recently gave YumSugar insight into how a nationwide eatery translates the food world's biggest hits into menu items that successfully appeal to Quiznos's customers.

So do all of their creations make it on the menu? Absolutely not. Head over to YumSugar to read what has worked and what doesn't.

Listen up, fellas: just in case you thought it was ok to satiate your man-sized appetite with a Carl's Jr. Double Guacamole Bacon Burger for lunch, the editors at Men's Health are telling you to think again.

The magazine that is perhaps single-handedly responsible for the American obsession with six-pack abs has combed through all the tiny type of those fast-food nutrition tables and come up with its list of the ten worst fast-food meals in the country.

While many of the revelations are hardly startling (do they really think that anyone who's going to order something called the "Triple Baconator" at Wendy's gives a hoot that it's got 43 grams of saturated fat?), there are a handful of surprises.

Take the Quiznos large Tuna Melt with a side of Cheetos. It might seem smart to opt for heart-healthy tuna over a burger somewhere else, but, smothered in mayo, this sandwich is the caloric equivalent of "eating one whole bag of Chewy Chips Ahoy! Cookies," the editors point out, "making it one of the absolute worst sandwiches in the country."

An activist group scheduled a protest Tuesday at Quiznos headquarters in Denver to urge the chain to come to an agreement with the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers to ensure better working conditions and better pay for tomato pickers.

The Bike Parade and Kite Flying Rally -- organized by the CIW, Denver Fair Food and other activist groups -- comes days after the restaurant chain released a Supplier Code of Conduct that attempts to come to an agreement with the CIW on the issue.

The Quiznos Supplier Code of Conduct asks tomato suppliers to create specific plans to address wages and working conditions for the farm workers who pick tomatoes.

In an effort to make its restaurants and take-away containers more environmentally friendly, Quiznos has kicked off its "Eat Toasty, Be Green" campaign with the introduction of new biodegradable packaging.

Quiznos is introducing 100 percent compostable wax-coated paper cups, pulp salad bowls made from renewable sugarcane and napkins made from 100 percent recycled material and fibers. Plastic lids will be 30 percent post-consumer recycled PET bottles and catering lunch boxes will be made from 100 percent recycled paperboard.

The company is also outfitting its employees with uniforms made from 100 percent recycled soda pop bottles. One hat keeps six soda bottles out of the landfill. An apron is made from about 25 bottles.

"We first looked at our cups and salad bowls and salad lids. We were using plastic salad bowls and we wound up finding a vendor that has a renewable sugarcane-pulp bowl that's recyclable, biodegradable and compostable," Ellen Kramer, executive vice president of communications for Quiznos, told Slashfood.

What's a pig to do when it's lost and hungry on the streets?

Try to order from the nearest Quiznos drive-through window like one stray pig in Lake of the Pines, Calif., TheUnion.com reported.

Gladys, a 300-pound one-year-old female pig, was found oinking into the transmitter by Quiznos employees last week. The employees gave the malnourished swine some Quiznos fare while waiting for Animal Control to arrive.

"I think she was getting to the point of desperation because she was probably given food and to fend for herself, that's not something she seemed to have known how to do," Sgt. Shirley Falls with Nevada County Animal Control told Slashfood.