NEW YORK (MarketWatch) Dunkin Donuts announced Thursday that it plans to remove a potentially harmful nanomaterial from its powdered doughnuts.

The San Franciscobased advocacy group As You Sow commissioned an independent study in 2013 that tested 10 types of powdered doughnuts and found a nanoparticle called titanium dioxide in Hostess Donettes and Dunkin Donuts powdered cake doughnuts.

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Dunkin Donuts DNKN, +2.98% said it is now in the process of removing the nanomaterial after coming under pressure from As You Sow, whose effort included putting a proposal before parent company Dunkin Brands shareholders. In accordance with the withdrawal of that shareholder proposal, Dunkin Donuts has 30 days to provide a time table for the ingredients removal from its powdered doughnuts.

Titanium dioxide is used to brighten white substances. Some preliminary studies show that nanomaterials can cause DNA and chromosomal damage, organ damage, inflammation, brain damage and genital malformations among other harms, according to As You Sow.

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The main reason for deploying nanotechnology in foods is that it gives manufacturers tighter control over what theyre producing, touching on such areas as coloration, dimensions and taste. Through nanotechnology, manufacturers are able to manipulate materials down to a billionth of a meter.

Our concerns are, do doughnuts really need to be wider or brighter, and whats the effect of that? asked Danielle Fugere, president of As You Sow. If we dont know what happens to the body yet, then we shouldnt be putting these in our food.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesnt yet have a definition for what constitutes nanomaterial in food, but here is what the FDA has issued guidance to the food industry (see adjacent image).

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Behind the Storefront: Dunkin Donuts to remove nanomaterial from powdered doughnut recipe