Iceberg lettuce — also known as the tasteless afterthought often found in annoyingly huge chunks in salads and shredded into lifeless strands for sandwiches — may be somewhat ubiquitous in the fast food world, but there’s at least one chain that refuses to use the stuff: Chick-fil-A’s test kitchen has taken a hard line against iceberg lettuce.

Chick-fil-A has six chefs working out of its test kitchen in Atlanta on new salads and healthy sides for the chain, who are free to explore the culinary world in search of the next big veggie hit. But there’s one ingredient chefs aren’t allowed to experiment with in the kitchen.

“We have a mandate: Never use iceberg lettuce,” David Farmer, Chick-fil-A vice president of menu strategy and development, told Business Insider. “It’s at the bottom of the salad food chain. There is no nutritional value in iceberg lettuce.”

Instead, he’s a fan of darker leafy greens like kale, which Chick-fil-A now serves at its restaurants, despite having an antithetical stance on the salad staple in the past.

“Our focus over the last couple years has been around health,” Farmer explained. “We’re seeing purchase behavior shift toward healthier items, so we’re fully committed to providing more nutritional options for customers.”

This doesn’t mean you’ll never see iceberg on the menu, however.

“There’s no official ban in place,” Carrie Kurlander, vice president of public relations, Chick-fil-A, tells Consumerist. “What you will find is our premium salads and Superfood Side introduced this year include ingredients like kale and romaine lettuce, and we’ve opted for these because of the nutrients and flavor they pack in every bite.”

Chick-fil-A has banned one ingredient from its restaurants [Business Insider]

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