Subway, the popular sandwich chain, has announced the ingredient dubbed the "yoga mat chemical" will be entirely phased out of its bread by next week.

The disclosure comes after Subway suffered from an onslaught of bad publicity sparked by a food blogger who petitioned the chain to remove the ingredient.

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Subway restaurants announced they were eliminating azodicarbonamide, a chemical used in yoga mats, from breads, but the Environmental Working Gro...

The chemical is also used to make yoga mats.

Tony Pace, Subway's chief marketing officer, told the Associated Press that the chain had started phasing out the ingredient late last year and that the process should be complete within a week. Subway is privately held and doesn't disclose its sales figures. But it has apparently been feeling pressure from the uproar.

"You see the social media traffic, and people are happy that we're taking it out, but they want to know when we're taking it out," Pace said. "If there are people who have that hesitation, that hesitation is going to be removed."

John Coupland, a professor of food science at Penn State University, noted that people concerned about azodicarbonamide focus in part on a carcinogen called urethane it creates in the baking process. But he said some level of urethane is already present in bread and that even the simple act of toasting can increase its levels.

"Nobody worries about making toast," Coupland said, adding that one could argue there's some type of risk associated with any number of chemicals.

Coupland also questioned how Subway's removal of the ingredient would address the bigger question of whether its food is actually healthy.

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Subway: No more "yoga mat" chemical in our bread by next week