Dunkin' Donuts to scale back menu, remove afternoon sandwiches

David Brinkerhoff | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Hundreds line up outside LA's first Dunkin' Donuts In this special edition of America's Markets USA Today's Matt Krantz attends the opening of LA's first Dunkin' Donuts store in decades and sees how it will size up againt coffee giant Starbucks.

Dunkin’ Donuts will offer a slightly smaller menu starting on Monday, aiming for speedier, more accurate service.

The scaled back menus will appear in New England and upstate New York this week, and roll out to the rest of the nation before the end of March, Dunkin' Donuts said.

The doughnut maker will eliminate “slower moving” items, such as the Turkey Cheddar Bacon Sandwich, the Tuna Salad Sandwich, the Angus Steak & Egg Breakfast Sandwich, the Strawberry Banana and Tropical Mango smoothies, the peach and caramel flavor shots and some muffin, bagel and cream cheese varieties. Some of the foods that are going away were always optional for franchisees' restaurants, the company said.

"On a regional basis, there will continue to be local favorites carried and we can always consider adding items back on a national or regional basis if we see strong demand," Dunkin' Donuts said in an e-mail.

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Ninety percent of Dunkin’ Donuts items will stay on its menu, however, including its lineup of coffees, doughnuts and breakfast sandwiches.

The company tried out the simplified menu in several markets starting in early 2017, and by the autumn expanded the test to almost 1,000 locations.

Dunkin’ Donuts has also announced that artificial dyes have been removed from its doughnuts, part of effort to offer simpler ingredients and cut dyes across its U.S. lineup of foods and drinks by the end of 2018.