Subway: ‘Yoga mat chemical’ removed next week
Print Edition
THE Subway sandwich chain says an ingredient dubbed the “yoga mat chemical” will be entirely phased out of its bread by next week.
The disclosure comes as Subway has suffered from an onslaught of bad publicity since a food blogger petitioned the chain to remove the ingredient.
The ingredient, azodicarbonamide, is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for use in food as a bleaching agent and dough conditioner.
It can be found in a wide variety of products, including those served at McDonald’s, Burger King and Starbucks and bread sold in supermarkets. But the petition became a flashpoint by noting that the chemical is also used to make yoga mats and isn’t approved for use in some other parts of the world.
Tony Pace, Subway’s chief marketing officer, said that the chain started phasing out the ingredient late last year and that the process should be complete within a week.
“You see the social media traffic, and people are happy that we’re taking it out, but they want to know when we’re taking it out,” Pace said. “If there are people who have that hesitation, that hesitation is going to be removed.”
The issue illustrates a split in thought about what should go into our food. One side says such additives are used in hundreds of food products and are safe to eat in the quantities approved by the authorities. The other side asks why such ingredients need to be used at all.
John Coupland, a food science professor at Penn State University, noted that people concerned about azodicarbonamide focus in part on a carcinogen called urethane it creates during baking.
But he said some level of urethane is already present in bread and that even toasting can increase its levels.
“Nobody worries about making toast,” Coupland said, adding that one could argue there’s some type of risk associated with any number of chemicals.
Coupland also questioned whether Subway removing the ingredient would make people think the food is healthier.
The blogger who created the Subway petition, Vani Hari of FoodBabe.com, said she was happy to hear about Subway’s move but that the chain still had other questionable ingredients, such as caramel coloring and yeast extract.
“The point of the petition was that I wanted people to know that eating fresh is not really eating fresh,” she said.
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