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A popular blogger, along with public pressure, have forced two major restaurants to remove a chemical from its bread that is used to make shoe soles and yoga mats from its bread.
The franchised sandwich chain Subway will stop putting the chemical azodicarbonamide into its bread just days after Vani Hari, the blogger known as the Food Babe, began petitioning for its removal. A petition had gathered 86,000 signatures when the chain acted. Meanwhile, Pizza Hut says it is removing the chemical from its restaurants that serve rolls, and Kraft says it is removing artificial preservatives from its single cheese slices.
“Do we really need to be eating plastic in our bread?” Hari asked CNN’s Jake Tapper. “This is something almost every country around the world has banned. The World Health Organization has deemed it an asthmatic trigger.
“This is definitely something that we’re not supposed to be eating,” Hari said. “It’s the same stuff that makes the foam in a yoga mat. The little air bubbles you see in a yoga mat it makes into bread. This is definitely not real food.”
Banned In Other Countries
Hari discovered that Subway’s bread contained azodicarbonamide after launching a thorough investigation of Subway’s ingredients. She wanted to find out if Subway really used fresh ingredients after Michelle Obama endorsed the sandwich chain as a healthy place to eat.
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“I wanted to know if we were really eating fresh,” Hari said of Subway. “What I found out was horrifying.”
The World Health Organization has linked azodicarbonamide to lung problems, eye problems and skin irritation, Hari noted. The Center for Science in the Public Interest is petitioning the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban the use of azodicarbonamide in baking because it can break down into two cancer-causing chemicals.
Tapper challenged Hari.
“This is a common ingredient for breads in the United States,” Tapper said. “There isn’t necessarily evidence that anybody has been hurt by this bread.”
Hari responded: “The [reason] why there hasn’t been any evidence is because there hasn’t been any long-term human studies. The Centers of Science and Public Interest just came out with a statement saying the chemical compound does release other compounds that are carcinogenic. And there is a small cancer risk.”
She discovered that Subway doesn’t use azodicarbonamide in its bread in Europe, the United Kingdom or Australia but does use it in the United States. The chemical is apparently added to the bread to make it more elastic.
Second Recent Victory for the Food Babe’s Army
This is the second time in recent months the Food Babe and health conscience citizens have forced a major fast food chain to remove harmful ingredients from its menu, as Off The Grid News previously reported. In December, Chick-fil-A removed high fructose corn syrup from buns after a petition from Hari gaines steam.
“I’m absolutely stunned at how fast my petition circulated across the web in 24 hours,” Hari said of the Subway petition. She said 50,000 people signed the petition in the first day alone.
Hari created the Subway petition after she contacted company and the chain had no response.
“The complete conversion to have this product out of the bread will be done soon,” said a statement from Subway to the Huffington Post.
“I don’t recommend eating Subway until they do get it out,” Hari said of the chain’s decision.
The Food Babe’s investigation shows that average citizens can fight Big Food and win.
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