Bread pinned as “cancerous additive”, gets banned in India

With the news of claiming potassium bromate and potassium iodate as cancerous additives after a case study smacked by CSE, Indian government has banned bread in India. A case study by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) upon 38 bread brands (Harvest Gold, Britannia, KFC, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, McDonald’s) with their buns and pavs, available in markets spotted out that most of them contains the two “dodgy chemicals” which are perilous for the health of people.

Going forward, about “potassium bromate” it upshots in: strengthening the dough, fluffy, spongy, whitish colour and uniformly shaped breads. Years back, many western countries banned it from using. But India in its zone kept continuing the procedure at some acceptable limits. While concerning “potassium iodate”, this has popped up to be carcinogenic which retorts as flour treating agent.

With suggestions from FSSI (Food safety and Standards Authority of India), it is margined as “50ppm for bread” and “20ppm for flour”. But for other bakery filtrates, we are still unaware about their limitations. Bakery makers whereas has said that in presence of the chemicals, the items should be baked at a high temperature and for quite a long time to negate its effects. They have also confirmed to not use such chemicals further in the preparations of bakery items.

But the point fussily shrouds us that, is there any need to stretch grumpy news about the hazardous chemicals on one side and on the other side, suggesting the usage of chemicals within a permitted dosage. With the dark secrets of the growing world of fast foods and pre-packaged foods getting uncovered, it’s time to remind consumers who hardly gives attention to the chemicals and its harmful brunt. We should now vastly concentrate on our health, stay fit, eat fresh things and utmost important is to have knowledge of what we are eating now.