How did we get to a place where bread contains cancer-causing chemicals? Samples of bread tested in Delhi by Centre for Science and Environment revealed that 84 per cent of commonly available brands tested positive for potassium bromate and potassium iodate. While the former is a category 2B carcinogen, which means it is harmful to humans, the latter could trigger thyroid disorders. This is disturbing news and if bread in Delhi is contaminated imaging what is happening in the rest of the country where tests are rarely conducted on food products. That harmful chemicals have to be used to prepare something as simple as bread reveals how large food chains operate. It is also an eye opener to a basic fact that baking bread is a lot more complicated than earlier imagined. It should have been simple, but when one throws in preservatives, texture of the finished product and taste, then even the best of bakers needs a little help from chemicals, so it seems. The chemicals mentioned have been banned in a large number of countries but the US still permits their use. Processed food, by nature, is laden with chemicals, mostly to preserve or give colour and the government needs to play a more active role to ensure that the harmful ones are weeded out.
