Briana Hayes
Staff Writer

At Subway, you can always have it your way, and that does not exclude chemicals that are used in yoga mats.

Subway is the world’s largest sandwich chain and boasts the fact that you can have any sandwich just the way you want it, in addition to the fact that their “fast food” is healthy.

Athletes such as Apolo Ohno and Michael Phelps have spoken in Subway commercials and acted as spokespeople after their participation in the Olympics.

In fact, in late January First Lady Michelle Obama worked with Subway restaurants to help promote and provide healthier options to kids.

Subway, along with Michelle Obama and the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), announced a commitment for three years to support the Let’s Move! Initiative put forth by Michelle Obama.

This deal required Subway to increase their healthy options targeted toward children. This includes a campaign for kids that have the purpose of increasing fruit and vegetable consumption.

As a part of this commitment, Subway will offer items on a children’s menu that conform to nutritional guidelines enforced by federal standards normally meant for school lunch programs. They will also spend $41 million in media value to market these healthier options towards children.

With all of these positive and health-focused actions, it is hard to believe that Subway was accused of making their bread with a chemical known as azodicarbonamide.

Once this was known, 60,000 people signed an online petition created by a food blogger to ask Subway to stop making their bread with this chemical. This happened only a week after Michelle Obama ate lunch at a Subway.

The well-known food blogger, Vani Hari, also known as @foodbabe, asked Subway via Twitter to stop using the chemical.

Azodicarbonamide was used in the sandwich company’s bread to make the bread faster and cheaper to produce. The problem with this chemical is that it is associated with respiratory issues, allergies, and asthma, according to the World Health Organization.

When it is used as a food additive, azodicarbonamide is employed as a flour bleaching and improving agent. However, the principal use of this chemical is for the production of foamed plastics, such as shoe soles and yoga mats.

For these reasons, it was banned all over the world, except in America. The dangers of this chemical are so severe that in Singapore you can get fined $450,000 and serve 15 years in prison.

For some reason, azodicarbonamide has been Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) in the United States.

The most striking thing about this situation is that Subway does not use the chemical in any other country. So even though they legally cannot in other countries, they still choose to use it in North America, while knowing the dangers.

Their healthy reputation is at risk with people aware of this unsafe ingredient in their breads. The petition caused an uproar that made many customers swear off the chain until they fixed the problem.

Upon the petition and negative publicity, a representative from Subway informed the Associated Press that the plan to remove the chemical from their breads in the United States was underway before the petition ever occurred.

Subway puts forth the image of healthy and fresh ingredients that are good enough for Olympic medalists to consume. This does not normally include a chemical known to cause respiratory problems, but the problem is being addressed.