As bread regains its popularity among restaurants in the U.S, it is also becoming a rising concern from health advocacy groups as they have found ingredients present in the carbohydrate filled food that has been found harmful in the body.
The nonprofit group, Environmental Working Group from Washington D.C., has identified 86 foods that contain potassium bromate, an ingredient in flours that has been dubbed by the group as "a possible cancer-causing additive." Potassium bromate is added "to strengthen the dough, allow it to rise higher and give the finished bread an appealing white color." It is also used for malting barley for malt drinks or distilled spirits.
Buzzfeed News reports, that the health advocacy group is launching a petition to food manufacturers, suppliers and food establishments to stop including the said additive for making pastries, rolls, pizza crusts and other breads - since the U.S FDA "hasn't made any official statements or issued any guidance documents to manufacturers explicitly asking them to discontinue the use of potassium bromate in baking products," said EWG database analyst Jose Aguayo as he told Buzzfeed News.
Based on the study from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, another health advocacy group, bromate was responsible for causing tumors in lab rats in an experiment done in 1982. Their group incessantly called for its ban 16 years ago, in 1999.
Earlier this year, the bakery café chain Panera already initiated the ban of bromate in all of their breads and other food products, together with artificial preservatives, food coloring and sweeteners.
"Bromates have been banned in the U.K., Canada, Brazil, and the European Union. There is no ban in the U.S., but California declared it a carcinogen in 1991 and products that contain it must have a cancer warning, causing most bakers in the state to go bromate-free," Buzzfeed News reports.
