Around Town

Food Babe takes on the holy grail of morning: Cereal

By Jen Rothacker

The Story

Do you love Froot Loops, Golden Grahams and Mini Wheats? Stop! They could be killing you, says the Food Babe.

The Facts

– The Food Babe is Charlotte’s Vani Hari. Her website wages full-on attacks against chemicals in processed foods.

– In the past, she’s taken on Subway, Kraft, Chick-fil-A, Starbucks. She often wins. But she has her critics who fault her for shaky science.

– Hari’s newest assault: Kellogg’s and General Mills. She wants them to remove the preservative Butylated Hydroxytoluene, or BHT, from their cereals.

//><!--– Why? Some studies show a link to cancer. It’s already been removed from cereals in Europe, she says.//--><!

– Hari launched an online petition that already has more than 40K signatures.

Food Babe fans (and there are lots of them)

And her critics (and there are lots of them)

Statement from General Mills: BHT is an FDA-approved food ingredient, but we’re already well down the path of removing it from our cereals. This change is not for safety reasons, but because we think consumers will embrace it. We’ve never spoken with Vani Hari and she did not play any role in our decision. Many of our US Cereals do not contain BHT including: Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Trix, Kix and Lucky Charms. Our removal of BHT from cereals is well underway and has been for more than a year.

C5’s Take

General Mills still makes Kix?

Photos: Jeff Willhelm / Charlotte Observer

This story was originally published February 10, 2015 at 12:55 AM with the headline "Food Babe takes on the holy grail of morning: Cereal."

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