Your daily bread can now be a major health issue for you, as it could contain cancer-causing chemicals, reveals a new study.
CSE’s new study tested some of the bread sold in Delhi and found residues of Potassium Bromate and Iodate in commonly consumed varieties.
Potassium Bromate and Potassium Iodate are cancer causing substances that are banned in many countries, but not in India due to slack food regulations.
The study, conducted by CSE’s Pollution Monitoring Laboratory (PML), says Indian bread manufacturers use Potassium Bromate and Potassium Iodate for treating flour while making bread. The PML tested 38 commonly available branded varieties of pre-packaged breads of popular fast food outlets from Delhi.
“We found 84 per cent samples positive with potassium Bromate/Iodate. We re-confirmed the presence of Potassium Bromate/Iodate in a few samples through an external third-party laboratory. We checked labels and talked to industry and scientists. Our study confirms the widespread use of Potassium Bromate/Iodate as well as presence of Bromate/Iodate residues in the final product,” says Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general, CSE and head of the CSE lab.
Eighty-four per cent (32/38) samples were found with Potassium Bromate/Iodate in the range of 1.15-22.54 parts per million (ppm). Seventy-nine per cent (19/24) samples of packaged bread, all samples of white bread, pav, bun and ready-to-eat pizza bread and 75 per cent (3/4) samples of ready-to-eat burger bread tested positive.
High levels of Potassium Bromate/Iodate were found in sandwich bread, pav, bun and white bread. Products of Perfect Bread, Harvest Gold and Britannia were those with higher levels.
No residues were found in all four tested products of Defence Bakery (Whole Wheat Bread, Jumbo Slices Brown, Brown Bread, Multigrain), one out of four samples of English Oven (Sandwich Bread) and one out of two samples of Nirula’s (burger bread of Chatpata Aloo Burger).
Only one brand – Perfect Bread – labels use of Potassium Bromate. No maker among those tested labels Potassium Iodate. Only Britannia denied use of Potassium Bromate or Iodate.
Products of all five popular multinational fast food outlets selling pizza and burger were found positive with Potassium Bromate/Iodate. These include KFC, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Subway and McDonald’s. Except Domino’s, others have denied use.
