Subway sandwich bread isn’t the only food made with the “yoga mat” chemical.
In fact, azodicarbonamide is found in about 500 different packaged foods, including breads, stuffings, croutons and other packaged baked goods, according to a report by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit research and consumer advocacy organization.
The tongue-twisting additive, also known as ADA, garnered widespread attention after Subway announced in early February that it is phasing out the ingredient from bread sold at U.S. stores.
That statement came after a campaign by blogger Vani Hari of foodbabe.com, who pointed to its use in the plastics and rubber industry, in products like yoga mats and flip-flops.
The “foaming agent” — which gives certain plastics products their light, buoyant quality — is used in the food industry as a flour-bleaching agent and to make dough rise faster.
ADA is banned in Europe and Australia and has been linked to respiratory issues and allergies by the World Health Organization, which cites studies of workers exposed to relatively high levels. It is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in foods at levels below 45 parts per million.
EWG researchers scanned the ingredients lists of more than 80,000 foods and found ADA listed as an ingredient in nearly 500 of them, according to the report.
The group is constructing a food database similar to its “Skin Deep” database that assigns safety ratings to cosmetics and household products based on their ingredients list.
Among the foods with ADA are whole grain breads and buns by Archer Farms and Arnold, some Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches, danish and cinnamon rolls from Little Debbie, Pillsbury Toaster Scrambles and Toaster Strudels, Smuckers Uncrustables, and three varieties of Weight Watchers Smart Ones meals.
Other brands on the list include Ball Park, Fleischman’s, Kroger, Marie Callendar’s, Sara Lee and Wonder.
The new list doesn’t specify how much of the ingredient each food contains, nor does it identify any that exceed the approved levels.
In a statement, the EWG acknowledges that ADA “is not known to be toxic to people in the concentration approved” by the FDA.
But the group called it “an unnecessary ingredient” and advised consumers to steer clear.
“One thing is clear: ADA is not food, as food has been defined for most of human history,” EWG senior scientist David Andrews and editor-in-chief Elaine Shannon wrote in a statement. “It is an industrial chemical added to bread for the convenience of industrial bakers.”
Subway has not given a date by which the ingredient will no longer appear in its bread, but the company said it started testing a new bread recipe in select stores in 2013.
Update: This article originally listed Nature’s Own as one of the brands with products containing ADA. On Feb. 28, Nature’s Own informed EWG that it had removed the ingredient from its products in 2013, but that some of the packaging had not yet been updated to reflect the change. EWG has removed Nature’s Own from its report on products containing ADA.
