Papa John's International

Papa John's International provided a granular breakdown by weight (lbs) of its top purchased items in its 2021 Corporate Responsibility Report. The company identified its key purchased proteins as dairy (purchased 127.8 million lbs of pizza cheese), followed by beef and pork (purchased 41.3 million lbs of beef and pork pizza toppings), and chicken (purchased 26.7 million lbs of chicken). The company did not repeat this detailed breakdown in its 2022 ‘Corporate Responsibility Report’. The company also identified eggs as a key protein as its ‘Corporate Animal Welfare Policy’ includes a commitment to serve only cage-free eggs.

Papa John’s International has an antibiotics policy in place for its broiler supply chain in the US. In 2016, it transitioned its chicken pizza toppings and chicken poppers to a No Antibiotics Ever Policy. In 2021, it experienced supply chain disruptions and was no longer able to source chicken to a No Antibiotics Ever standard. The company has since sourced its chicken pizza toppings and chicken poppers in the US from supply chains that do not use antibiotics important to human medicine. Note that although “antibiotics important to human medicine” is a term occasionally used by the industry to represent the 35 antimicrobial classes used in human medicine outlined in the WHO’s ‘Critically important antimicrobials for human medicine 6th revision’, it does not accurately reflect the WHO’s wording, which is “medically important antimicrobials” (MIAs). Papa John’s International does not provide evidence that it has an antibiotic policy in place for its beef, pork, egg-layers, and dairy. Papa John's GB, Ltd. has a separate animal welfare policy and antibiotic policy. Its commitments are to ensure that antibiotics are not used for growth promotion within the company’s supply chain, and to end the reliance on antibiotics to support poor production systems by avoiding the prophylactic and metaphylactic use of antibiotics and by limiting the use of CIAs. Its policy applies to broilers, beef, pork, dairy, and egg-layers. Papa John’s GB Ltd reports that it has prohibited the use of antibiotics for growth promotion from its broilers as it sources chicken from either Europe, where the use of antibiotics for growth promotion is not permitted by law, or from Thailand where the use of growth promotion is not permitted by its recognised farm assurance schemes. The company also disclosed that the farm assurance schemes used in its chicken supply chain verify that routine prophylactic and metaphylactic use is avoided. It sources its beef, pork, dairy, and laying hens from the EU where the use of antibiotics for growth promotion is not permitted by law.

Papa John’s International antibiotics policy for broilers that prohibits the use of antibiotics important to human medicine in chicken pizza toppings and chicken poppers applies to its US restaurants. Papa John's International disclosed in its Annual Report that at the end of 2023, 3,220 of its 5,906 restaurants were based in the US, representing approximately 55% of its restaurants. In its annual report, the company reports that it has 524 restaurants in the UK. Therefore, Papa John’s GB Ltd policy to ensure that antibiotics are not used for growth promotion, to avoid the use of antibiotics for prophylaxis and metaphylaxis, and to restrict the use of critically important antibiotics, applies to approximately 9% of the company's restaurants.

Papa John’s International reports that it sources chicken toppings and chicken poppers for the US, from suppliers who do not use MIAs. Besides this disclosure, the company provides no other evidence that it is tracking and monitoring the use of antibiotics in its supply chain. Similarly, Papa John’s GB Ltd, disclosed that it sources its broilers, beef, pork, dairy, and laying hens from the EU where the use of antibiotics for growth promotion and the practices of prophylaxis and metaphylaxis are not permitted by law. It additionally sources a percentage of its broilers from Thailand where growth promotion and routine prophylactic and metaphylactic use are proven to be avoided by recognised farm assurance schemes. However, the company has not disclosed any antibiotic usage data for Papa John’s GB Ltd supply chain.

Papa John’s International does not provide evidence of auditing its US supply chains for antibiotic use. Papa John’s GB Ltd animal welfare commitments are covered by 5 farm assurance schemes: Red Tractor, Bord Bia, QS, IKB-KIP, and FARM FIRST, which provides third-party verification that its antibiotic use complies with its commitments.

Papa John’s International does not disclose evidence of a non-compliance procedure for its antibiotic use, however, Papa John’s GB Ltd details how it manages non-compliance with its farm assurance schemes in its ‘Implementation of our Core Animal Welfare Commitments’. Incidences of non-compliance are reported to the Regional QA who will co-ordinate a root cause analysis and log corrective actions. Papa John’s GB Ltd provides evidence that this applies to its commitments to prohibit the use of growth promoters, prophylactic, and routine metaphylactic use of antibiotics. No issues of non-compliance regarding Papa John’s GB Ltd antibiotic commitments have been logged in 2022-2023 as reported in its ‘Implementation of our Core Animal Welfare Commitments’.

Papa John’s GB Ltd outlines commitments to ensure that antibiotics are not used for growth promotion within its supply chain, to avoid the routine prophylactic and metaphylactic use of antibiotics, and to limit the use of critically important antibiotics. These commitments are not timebound. Outside of Great Britain, Papa John’s International does not disclose evidence of an antibiotic reduction target for any of its purchased animal proteins.

Papa John’s commitment to reducing antibiotic use only applies to its Papa John’s GB Ltd operations which cover approximately 9% of the company's restaurants.

Papa John’s GB Ltd provides an update on the progress it is making towards its commitments in its ‘Implementation of our Core Animal Welfare Commitments’. As already discussed above, Papa John’s GB Ltd, disclosed that it sources its broilers, beef, pork, dairy, and laying hens from the EU where the use of antibiotics for growth promotion and the practices of prophylaxis and metaphylaxis are not permitted by law. It additionally sources a percentage of its broilers from Thailand where growth promotion and routine prophylactic and metaphylactic use are proven to be avoided by recognised farm assurance schemes. Regarding its commitment to limit the use of critically important antibiotics, the company reports that farm assurance programs differ widely in their approach to limiting the use of critically important antibiotics and it has not yet determined a pathway to deliver on this commitment. The company disclosed that it intends to prioritise setting an objective for this commitment during 2023 but has not yet publicly reported one.

Papa John’s has acknowledged the Restaurant Antibiotic Collaborative Engagement, but the company has not provided a written response to the engagement questions, nor has it agreed to participate in a dialogue with investors. The company did participate in an introduction call with FAIRR to discuss the engagement, however it did not provide any feedback on its assessment.