VANGUARD
Over time, bread has remained a staple food consumed by most families worldwide, including Nigeria. It has emerged as one of the most popular meal options that can be combined with various nuts, seeds, liquids, etc, to make a cheap and quick hunger-quenching meal.
Bread was so popular and significant that Jesus, more than 2,025 years ago, taught his disciples to pray to God thus: “Give us this day our daily bread’ (Matt 6.11).
However, the unethical and sharp practices of some bakers make bread consumption an ingestion of daily poison.
How? Researchers across many Nigerian cities have found that many bread brands contain potassium bromate and impermissible levels of other heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, lead, chromium, manganese, nickel, cobalt and zinc.
Those who consume bread contaminated by potassium bromate and trace metals, over a long time, are prone to many illnesses, including cancer and kidney failure.
Consequently, they urged the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, to take decisive steps, ensure close monitoring of bakeries across the country and avert health disaster as many consumers gave reasons they were addicted to bread.
Permissible level
Certain nations have set precise thresholds for certain levels of potassium bromate in final baked products, whereas others have prohibited its usage outright. In Nigeria, NAFDAC enforced a ban on using potassium bromate in flour milling and baking in 2003.
However, the World Health Organization, WHO; Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO; and the Food and Drug Agency, FDA; recommended an acceptable daily intake of 0.02 mg.kg-1 for potassium bromate in bread.
Most of the bread brands sampled in Ado-Ekiti, Ile-Ife, Port Harcourt, Yobe and Lagos contain over 0.05mg/kg of potassium bromate.
This disclosure is coming as NAFDAC warned bakeries to stop using saccharine and bromate in bread production, adding that those caught would be closed down.
However, the Professional Bakers Association of Nigeria, PBAN, has challenged NAFDAC to stop issuing warnings, and crackdown on quack bakers, claiming that its members produce safe and quality bread under hygienic conditions.
Why bakers use bromate
The use of cheap potassium bromate as flour improver for bread making has gained wide acceptability all over the world because of its slow oxidizing action which strengthens bread dough and helps to create a good texture in the finished product.
Utilized as an oxidizing agent in the fermentation and proofing phases of baking, potassium bromate is vital in shaping the composition and characteristics of dough.
It is widely recognized as one of the most cost-effective and efficient oxidizers in bread production as it modifies the gluten protein in flour, resulting in a softer and less elastic texture in the final product.
Also, potassium bromate contributes to the dough’s lightness and improves the bread’s overall consistency.
Nevertheless, heavy metals in bread production may also result from human involvement during processing or storage, influenced by environmental conditions, manufacturing techniques, and processing methods.
Dangers of excessive intake of bromate, others
In small quantities in diet, studies showed that trace elements are essential for specific bodily functions but their excessive intake can have detrimental effects on human health.
The consumption of bread containing heavy metals, such as mercury, magnesium, and lead, has been associated with various adverse effects, including neurological damage, suppression of the immune system, cancer, and behavioural and developmental problems.
For instance, the continued exposure to elevated levels of cadmium can lead to lung cancer, pulmonary adenocarcinomas, prostatic lesions, bone complications, kidney dysfunction, and hypertension.
Also, lead, which is non-essential for humans, can adversely affect the nervous, skeletal, circulatory, enzymatic, endocrine, and immune system.
Certain trace elements are often regarded as highly toxic, and exposure to them especially during infancy, such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb), can result in an array of health complications like anaemia, and different forms of cancer.
