CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte woman is in the national spotlight for calling on a popular food company to quit using food dyes in its products.
Studying food labels is habit for Vani Hari. It's part of her daily routine as creator of the popular blog foodbabe.com, which sees over a million page views a month.
“I think people really appreciate my tenacity for the truth,” she said.
Her most recent “quest for the truth” is a push against Kraft foods. She wants two food dyes, yellow 5 and yellow 6, out of mac and cheese products.
“They've been linked to hyperactivity in children. Other people have experienced asthma, skin rashes, migraines,” Hari said.
She started a petition to dump the dyes and delivered more than 270,000 signatures to Kraft's Illinois headquarters.
Her efforts put her in the national spotlight on GMA and Doctor Oz.
Eyewitness News took Hari's concerns to a local nurse practitioner.
Sandy Jarvis, with Southlake Pediatrics, said she's seen some children react negatively to food dyes.
“I have definitely seen kids that have hyperactivity, attention problems,” she said.
But Jarvis wants to stress it's not the case for everyone.
Eyewitness News reached out to Kraft. The company sent us a picture of 14 varieties of mac and cheese, which they said have natural colors or no colors at all.
They also said "...many people love the great taste of original Kraft mac & cheese just the way it is, so we'll continue to offer that choice as well."
Kraft also said the Food and Drug Administration deemed yellow 5 and yellow 6 safe.
While it's discouraging to Hari, she's still hopeful.
“I really feel companies say no, no, no before they say yes, and so I think they're going to make this change,” she said.
To visit Vani's Hari's blog, click here.
Kraft posted information regarding artificial food colors, here.
For a link to Kraft's "Letter to Fans," click here.
WSOC
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