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On Thursday, General Mills tweeted to concerned consumers, informing them that they are in the process of removing a preservative from their foods that has been banned in other parts of the world.

This came in response to actions by influential blogger Vani Hari of Foodbabe.com, who launched against General Mills and Kellogg鈥檚 for their use of Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT) in many of their cereals. Within a few hours, the petition gained over 17,000 signatures (the figure is now more than 32,000) demanding the companies remove the controversial chemical from their breakfast foods.

Some petitioners tweeted at General Mills to prompt action, and soon they received responses:

While allowed by the US Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA), BHT has raised some red flags in the food industry. The multiple concerns with the preservative that were found during animal testing, including adverse developmental effects and toxicity.

The that Ms. Hari reached out to General Mills a few weeks ago regarding the presence of BHT in their American-marketed cereals. She told the Observer that the company informed her 鈥渘ot to sweat it鈥� since it was FDA-approved. However, following the petition鈥檚 success, they claimed to have been in the process of removing the chemical for over a year.

鈥淏HT is an FDA-approved food ingredient, but we鈥檙e 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 ... 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,鈥� General Mills said in a statement, .

Kellogg鈥檚 has yet to respond.

BHT is already banned in European countries and Japan, which Hari said shows that the US should follow suit and make more strides for getting the preservative out of its own foods. She believes that the petition and General Mills鈥� response is a huge step, but is now wondering when it will be fully implemented.

鈥淣ow, I must ask this: Why is it taking so long for General Mills to remove a chemical they already don't use in Europe? When will children get to stop eating this unnecessary but potentially harmful additive like kids overseas?鈥� .

This is not the first time Hari has used her 鈥淔ood Babe Army鈥� to instigate change in America鈥檚 food industry.

After publishing a post titled 聽鈥淐hick-fil-A or Chemical-fil-A?鈥� in 2012, she met with Chick-fil-A executives to advocate for antibiotic-free products. After a year of follow-ups, the company started to remove a controversial ingredient, TBHQ (a chemical made from butane), from their products and .

In February of 2014, she spearheaded the efforts to remove a 鈥渃hemical found in yoga mats鈥� from bread at Subway, which they successfully did in April of the same year after the petition gained 68,000 signatures.

While Hari has led effective campaigns in the food industry, her efforts have not been without criticism. Some critics say she is a "fearmonger," and that her tactics take advantage of the public's scientific ignorance and growing distrust of food producers and retailers. Companies would rather bend to her demands鈥攚hether or not they are scientifically sound鈥攖han risk a negative public perception,.听

"Unfortunately, the Web is cluttered with people who really have no idea what they are talking about giving advice as if it were authoritative, and often that advice is colored by either an ideological agenda or a commercial interest," Yale's Steven Novella聽聽on his blog. "The Food Babe is now the poster child for this phenomenon."

Hari has gotten results. 鈥� such as Whole Foods, Starbucks, Lean Cuisine, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Chipotle, Yoforia, and Moe鈥檚 South West Grill 鈥� have been prompted to act after her impassioned activism. Hari hopes that General Mills and Kellogg's respond appropriately to the 32,000 people in support of removing BHT from their products.

In the post , Hari added, "We are going to hold the [two] largest cereal manufacturers in the United States accountable for their hypocrisy and double standards. American children are given no other choice than to eat this very controversial additive, when the same product is sold in other countries without it. It鈥檚 time for this to stop."