Panera Items That Are Frozen Not Fresh (And Other Menu Facts)

When you're craving a meal that's hearty, healthy, and freshly made, we bet one of the first fast-casual chains that comes to mind is Panera Bread. It started as a small bakery in 1987, and people loved it so much that now, only two states in America don't have a Panera outlet. This restaurant chain is mainly known for serving meals made with fresh and clean ingredients. However, what you see on the surface isn't always the reality, and how certain menu items are actually prepared before they're served may leave you shocked.

Panera has a sizeable menu, even after dropping several items over the years, but while many customers believe that Panera Bread makes every single item fresh at its outlets, that isn't really the case. Whether you believe it or not, some of the menu items at this fast-casual chain actually arrive frozen, and are then defrosted or reheated before being served to you. Plenty of current and former Panera employees have revealed on the internet which menu items are frozen, and they've also given solid reasons why Panera chooses to freeze some of its items. We've also gathered some other facts about the menu that may seem a bit odd, but are in fact true and worth knowing. So, if you'd like to steer clear of the frozen menu items and also make better choices when ordering at the restaurant chain, you've landed at the right place.

There's no doubt that Panera Bread serves a delicious lineup of soups, whether it's the broccoli Cheddar soup or classic chicken noodle. While they do taste great, the fact of the matter is that the soups are actually frozen. A former employee shared this information on Reddit, along with explaining the process the soups go through before being served, saying, "All our soups are indeed made fresh, but they're frozen into giant blocks and then dropped into a fridge-like box of really hot water to defrost them."

A current staff member also shared a funny experience they had with a customer who ordered soup at 6:40 am in a different Reddit post, which eventually led to them revealing that the soups are frozen. The customer kept insisting on being served soup at such an early hour, to which the employee replied, "The soup is literally a block right now it's frozen. I can't give you a frozen block of broccoli cheddar." Unsurprisingly, this left the customer shocked.

Frozen soup doesn't have to be a bad thing, though, and some have pointed out that there's nothing wrong with reheating frozen soup. When you think about it, if each outlet made fresh soup, there would always be a possibility that the flavor might not stay consistent everywhere. The bottom line is, if you like the flavor, that's all that should matter.

From cookies to flaky pastries and buttery cinnamon rolls, Panera Bread has it all when it comes to baked goods. While many may have assumed that they are all made from scratch daily, that isn't the reality. Instead, most of the baked goods are pre-made and frozen, then thawed and baked before being put on display. Employees have confirmed this online, explaining that all the pastries at Panera, as well as other baked goods like cookies and brownies, are now reheated from frozen.

This wasn't always the case, as some baked products used to be made in-store, but over the past few years, Panera Bread has made a few changes around how it manages its baked goods. A baker backed this up on Reddit, explaining, "It used to be some assembly with these products, but within the last few years, they have transitioned us to almost no hands-on prep. Now everything is freezer to oven."

It's fair to be disappointed with Panera Bread on hearing this, since the restaurant chain is perhaps best-known for its baked menu items (after all, it literally has bread in its name). But if you've eaten any of them over the past few months and haven't noticed any change in their flavor, there's probably no reason to stop buying them.

Panera Bread's mac and cheese didn't score too highly in our ranking of the best fast-food mac and cheeses, so it's worth knowing that this dish isn't made fresh. The fact that the mac and cheese is frozen gained attention when an employee uploaded a video on TikTok in 2019. The former staff member showed how the mac and cheese was prepared before service, which involved heating packed portions in boiling water. After this video went viral, a spokesperson from Panera told TODAY, "Mac and cheese is made offsite with our proprietary recipe developed by our chefs and using our sourced ingredients that meet our standards for our clean menu offerings."

Despite the fact that this creamy pasta dish is frozen, there's no denying that it's popular. In fact, customers have said that they like this dish on Reddit, with one calling it "the best thing on the menu." Moreover, since the spokesperson also pointed out that freezing the mac and cheese eliminates the need to add anything artificial for preservation, frozen isn't so bad here.

Since it's Panera Bread we're talking about, of course, you'd expect that the bakers at the chain would be making fresh bread from scratch every single day. Well, that's not quite what happens. The bread dough is actually pre-made, partly-baked, and frozen by contracted bakeries. We can imagine this might be a shocker, as you wouldn't have thought that the bread at Panera Bread is made elsewhere, and contrary to what you might have expected, the bakers essentially only put them in the oven before using them for sandwiches or serving them.

This isn't the approach that was always followed by the restaurant, though. Up until 2024, the dough was made in Panera's own production facilities, though it was still frozen and shipped to each location. Even though the stores weren't preparing the dough from scratch, the bakers were still responsible for the final steps in making the bread.

Unsurprisingly, the new method has received mixed reviews from customers and employees. While some employees have admitted that many customers don't like the new frozen bread, a few others have also mentioned that they think the frozen bread tastes better. So should you still get the bread from Panera or avoid it since it's frozen? Honestly, if you haven't noticed a difference in how it tastes, you might as well just continue getting it.

Yes, the chicken, bacon, and other meats on the Panera Bread menu are reheated from frozen at each outlet, arriving pre-cooked and vacuum-sealed. That said, an assistant general manager at Panera noted on Reddit that, "This is common. However Panera doesn't falsely advertise their meat, it doesn't have preservatives, they never claimed it comes fresh. It's all pre-cooked and frozen." 

Others have pointed out that there are some benefits to this. Reportedly, Panera freezes the chicken so it doesn't have to use any preservatives. Additionally, another Reddit commenter pointed out that, "it's way less labor intensive, and ensures consistency from coast to coast. But frozen doesn't necessarily mean poor quality with technology these days."

If you think about it, it's actually a silver lining that the meat is pre-cooked and frozen so that the restaurant chain can maintain its quality without using preservatives. The key takeaway here is, as long as you aren't served completely frozen pieces — which has happened to a few customers when some employees forgot to thaw the meat on time — there's no harm in enjoying the chicken, bacon, or other meats from Panera.

After knowing that the bread itself reaches every Panera outlet partly-baked and frozen, we bet you wouldn't be surprised to learn that the bagels go through the same process. Many employees confirmed this online after customers complained that the bagels don't taste like they used to, explaining that Panera outlets are now selling frozen bagels. On realizing this, some customers have understandably been derisive about how Panera started selling frozen bagels while also charging more money for them.

You possibly get the gist of the situation. Sure, it's a bummer that the bagels don't taste as great anymore since they are frozen (at least according to some customers). But we could give Panera the benefit of the doubt and believe these are a few personal opinions. In reality, you'll never know unless you try one yourself.

Now that you know the soup arrives frozen at all Panera outlets, it's also worth knowing that employees have confirmed that the restaurant often serves leftovers from the previous day. That said, even though it may sound unappealing, this isn't necessarily bad when the restaurant follows proper food safety precautions. When asked about this, an assistant general manager explained on Reddit, "As long as the water doesn't get into the soup bag it's fine the next day. And it's perfectly food safe as long as it cools to the correct temp in a certain amount of time and maintains that temp until it's heated up again." Unfortunately, other Panera employees have noted that leftover soup also reportedly has more chance of becoming watery the next day.

While many workers have mentioned that Panera serves leftover soup the next day, it should still be perfectly good and will taste fine if it's been stored and reheated properly. If you'd prefer a comparatively fresh bowl of soup, consider visiting your nearest location in the afternoon. Any leftovers are normally used up by then.

One of the reasons you might be going to Panera Bread is because you think it's the ultimate fast-casual restaurant to grab light and healthy food. While it is one of those fast food restaurants with healthy options, not all of them are as nutritious as they seem. Obviously, most people already know that items like mac and cheese, baked goods, and broccoli Cheddar soup can be heavy meals, but what's surprising is that some dishes that seem conventionally healthy also turn out to be the opposite once you check their nutritional facts.

For instance, a bacon turkey bravo on tomato basil sandwich is 1000 calories, while a pepperoni flatbread pizza is 1060 calories. Looking at some baguettes, a chicken green goddess caprese melt is 1070 calories, and a chicken & pepperoni mozzarella melt is 1110 calories. Given that an average person shouldn't eat more than 3000 calories in a day, these items are very calorie-dense and make up a substantial amount of your daily intake.

The good news is that there's still a way to stay within the limit while also enjoying what you like at the restaurant chain. In case you didn't know, Panera Bread started the trend of transparency with nutritional information on the menu. Unsurprisingly, it still follows this today, so you can also take a look at the amount of calories in each item before placing an order.

It's easy to assume a bread bowl gives you as much soup as a regular bowl, especially since it only costs slightly more. But the reality is, you actually get a smaller serving. A bread bowl holds 8 ounces of soup, which is as much as the standard portion served in a cup. On the other hand, when you order just a bowl of soup without the bread, you'd get 12 ounces. A bread bowl simply isn't large enough to hold as much soup as a regular bowl.

Since there's a practical reason behind serving as much soup as a cup in a bread bowl, there isn't anything inherently wrong with this. But if you're one who likes a large portion, you're essentially paying extra just for the bread while getting less soup. That said, you can still order the soup in a bowl and the bread separately, if you want a more sizeable 12-ounce helping of soup. You'll have to pay extra, but at least you'll be getting more for your money.

In a 2018 press release, Panera Bread highlighted that it used eggs that were cracked fresh for its breakfast sandwiches. While many assume the chain still uses freshly cracked eggs, that isn't the case. If you take a look at the official Panera Bread menu, all the breakfast sandwiches feature folded scrambled eggs. These are made with liquid whole eggs, made from whole eggs, canola oil, and citric acid. 

Panera started using freshly cracked eggs when it introduced over-easy eggs on its menu in 2018, but after they were dropped from the menu, the chain switched to a more convenient option with liquid eggs. Many staff members were happy about the switch, saying that the over-easy eggs were too much of a hassle, and they used to get a lot of complaints about them. If you think liquid whole eggs aren't real, though, let us tell you that they definitely are. A few former employees even backed Panera on Reddit when someone asked why the restaurant got rid of real eggs, explaining, "the eggs in the carton are still real eggs. Just not in the shell."