Vani Hari

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Vani Deva Hari (born March 22, 1979), who blogs as the Food Babe, is an American writer, activist, and affiliate marketer who criticizes the food industry.

Following her campaigns, Hari's recipes on food safety were published in 2011, and it attracted over 54 million views in 2014. Chick-fil-A and Kraft, Inc., and others have criticized her efforts in the aftermath of her campaigns.

Personal life

Vani Hari is married to Finley Clarke.

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Career

Hari, an Indian immigrant from Punjab, India, went to the University of Georgia before heading to University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She started working as a management consultant for Accenture after graduating in 2001 with a degree in computer science. Hari was hospitalized with appendicitis in her early 20s. She began investigating health and nutrition issues in response. She began the Food Babe blog in 2011 and left Accenture in 2012 to devote her time to activism and blogging, as well as marketing dietary and other items. Her blog had more than 5 million views by 2014 by 2014. Hari has over 97,000 Twitter followers and a Facebook page with over a million likes. She identifies her followers and supporters as the "Food Babe Army."

Hari has capitalized on her success by selling books, subscriptions to her food guide, meal planning, and products in which she earns affiliate commissions, as well as advertising her own line of supplements under the Truvani brand. Critics argue that the scandal she provokes through her activism helps drive traffic through her website.

Hari wrote an article about Chick-fil-A sandwiches in 2011, which she claimed to be harmful. Chick-fil-A responded to Hari's newspaper in May 2012 by inviting her to its Atlanta headquarters to address her questions. Chick-fil-A revealed in late 2013 that dyes, corn syrup, and TBHQ were withdrawn from their products as part of a larger attempt to improve the nutrition of their foods. In addition, they've revealed a plan to only use antibiotic-free chickens within the next five years.

President Barack Obama did not keep a pledge he made during his 2008 presidential campaign to require the testing of genetically modified foods (GMOs), according to Hari. Hari sat in the first row of the convention floor and held a banner that read "Label GMOs." During Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack's address, he was congratulated.

"Most of Chipotle's food was contaminated with genetically modified cooking oil, corn oil, and they were using genetically modified ingredients in their tortillas." Hari wrote a blog post about Chipotle in 2012. And in the black beans, there was GMO soybean oil. And avoiding it, you shouldn't even order vegetarian or avoid it. It was really sad. When I opened their flour tortillas' box, it said they used trans-fat. That's crazy. Chipotle arranged a meeting with Hari where she begged them to reveal their ingredients more openly after they had written about them on their blog. "Our aim is to eliminate GMOs from Chipotle's recipes, and we're working really hard to meet this challenge," Chipotle's Communications Director emailed Hari in March 2013. Chipotle stayed true to outlaw GMO ingredients from their menu in April 2015 and became the first national restaurant chain to use only non-GMO ingredients.

Hari filed her first petition on Change.org asking Kraft Foods to remove FD&C yellow#5 and FD&C yellow#6 food dyes from their Mac & Cheese in March 2013. Hari visited Kraft headquarters in Chicago on April 1, 2013, carrying a petition with over 270,000 signatures and speaking with executives. Kraft told ABC News Chicago that "no plans to change the recipe for the original mac and cheese"; "We have the highest priority and we are concerned about consumer concerns." We closely follow the laws and regulations in the countries where our products are exported." "People have tried to petition the FDA over and over again, and it hasn't worked," Hari said. "The best way to make change is to keep the food companies accountable." While the dyes are legal in the United States, Kraft in the United Kingdom uses a different process without artificial dyes. The petition had over 348,000 signatures by the end of October 2013. Kraft revealed in October 2013 that they would change the ingredients in three of its Mac & Cheese products marketed to children, which included the use of whole grains, salt reduction, and some fats, and changing the coloring; Kraft said that the changes were not a result of the petition; rather, they were part of a continuing effort to enhance the nutrition of the products, which takes several years to plan and implement. Hari praised the changes for the first time. Kraft also revealed in April 2015 that artificial dyes and artificial preservatives would be phased out from all of its Mac & Cheese products by 2016.

Hari wrote about the use of class IV caramel color in Newcastle Brown Ale on her blog and demanded that they no longer use this ingredient in 2013. Heineken announced in January 2015 that they would no longer add class IV caramel color to their Newcastle Brown Ale and would instead color it naturally with the same roasted malt they had previously used. Heineken's news came just prior to the publication of her book, The Food Babe Way (February 10, 2015), which devotes a chapter to the ingredients—including caramel coloring—in several beers, wines, and spirits.

Hari started a petition on her website urging Subway to remove azodicarbonamide (a non-foeble agent and dough conditioner) from their sandwich bread in February 2014. In less than 50,000 signatures in 24 hours, the petition attracted more than 50,000 people. Subway also revealed a proposal to eliminate the ingredient from all of their sandwich breads, a process that began well before her campaign. Hari is credited with bringing attention to the Center For Science In The Public Interest, who advocates for its removal, thanks to Hari's argument. The Environmental Working Group favored the removal of azodicarbonamide but was cautioned not to use it. The amount of azodicarbonamide approved by the FDA for use in bread is too low to pose a significant risk, according to food science experts.

Hari released a petition in June 2014 urging major brewers to list the ingredients in their drinks, something that brewers in the United States are not obligated to do. She said that commercial brewers "even use fish swim bladders" in their beer as an undisclosed component of the campaign. This is a case of fearmongery and ignorance of subject matter knowledge, as isinglass, which is derived from fish swim bladders, has been used as a natural fining agent in food and drink for centuries and is in many cases used mainly in cask ale, not vain-brewed beers, which are often cleared by filtering. Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors began using ingredients in many of their products the day after she had written her petition. Hari's petition was described as "attempt of fearmongering in the name of advocacy" by the trade journal Beer Marketer's Insights. Hari later admitted that she was aware of the ancient use of isinglass and was encouraging the use of uninformed vegans and vegetarians. Guinness has revealed in October 2015 that they are no longer using isinglass in their refining process in order to make their beer vegan.

Hari wrote a blog post in August 2014 in which she said that there is a lack of transparency when it comes to the ingredients in Starbucks' drinks. In Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte, she said that Starbucks does not reveal their ingredients online, and she pointed to the use of class IV caramel color and a lack of real pumpkin. Over ten million views on this website in 2014, and in the fall of 2015, Starbucks introduced a reformulated Pumpkin Spice Latte with real pumpkin and without caramel color. Hari lauded this change, saying he had emailed them monthly for updates.

Hari started a petition on her website urging GM and Kellogg not to remove the preservative butyluene (BHT) from their cereals on February 5, 2015. For many years, the additive has been used in cereal packaging in the United States. BHT must be listed as an ingredient on food labels, and some consumer advocates, such as the Environmental Working Group, have advised people not to use it as often as possible. The additive is not present in Cereals sold in Europe by GM and Kellogg. In 24 hours, Hari's petition received over 30,000 signatures. GM released a statement on February 5, 2015 that they would no longer be removing BHT from their cereal, saying, "This is not for safety reasons, but because we hope customers will accept it." "We've never met Vani Hari, and she did not have a hand in our decision," says the author. "Our removal of BHT from cereals is well underway and has been going for more than a year."

Hari campaigned Subway in August 2015 in partnership with Natural Resources Defense Council, Friends of the Earth, the Center for Food Safety, and the United States Public Interest Research Group to continue producing meat without the use of antibiotics is common practice, as well as a timeline. Subway revealed in October 2015 that they would go from antibiotic-free chicken to turkey in 2016 and turkey within the next 2 to three years, and that they will also switch to antibiotic-free beef and pork by 2025.

Kraft's ingredients petition attracted over 365,000 signatures, and her Subway petition gained over 50,000 in the first 24 hours. In 2014, the site attracted 52 million visitors as well as over three million unique visitors per month.

Time selected Hari among "The 30 Most Influential People on the Internet" in March 2015.

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