Confronted with the reality of the sale of bread with bromate and its health implications, Abdullah, a bread fanatic, with a keener interest in ‘Agege Bread,’ exclaimed: “Cancer? For where? What we have been eating for decades?”
“How did you arrive at that?” he asked, with a sense of shock, disbelief, and a little bit of fear, adding that that was even what he was planning to eat for dinner.
He claimed his burning love for bread was borne out of his inability to cook other varieties of food save for noodles; hence the need for fast foods. And that “bread, especially Agege bread, is the way out.”
Asked if he would quit bread having heard its health risks, he confessed he couldn’t. “I’m just in love with bread,” he said, with a sorry-to-disappoint look, “I can’t quit it, I can’t afford to miss it; i’d rather keep on praying for protection.”
Bread, Bromate, and Cancer
Bread is one of the most staple, cheap, fast foods in Nigeria. It is widely eaten and ubiquitous in many households.
Because most consumers prefer it soft, fluffy and smooth, the use of artificial enzymes and chemicals, dubbed Improvers, able to provide these qualities became common in bakeries.
One of these bread Improvers is Potassium Bromate, which was banned by NAFDAC in 2004, due to its link as a cause of cancer and many other deadly diseases.
A decade and half after, however, THE NATION gathers that Bromate is still in use for bread baking in bakeries across Nigeria.
The World Health Organization, WHO, has proclaimed Potassium Bromate carcinogenic: liable to cause cancer. This was announced in 1992 during its proscription from use as a bread Improver.
Besides cancer, Bromate has also been discovered to cause a handful of other diseases. These include renal failure, kidney failure, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea etc.
Bromate also affects the nutritional quality of bread, by degrading the vitamins and essential fatty acid contents of the flour.
A bread improved with Bromate is said to offer close to no nutrition to its consumer.
Therefore, considering the high amount of bread consumed on a daily basis in Nigeria, there is high dietary exposure to bromate, and, hence, a high risk of cancer and other fatal ailments.
Of 30 Breads, Only One Survives Bromate-Test
Sometime in August 2018, a research was conducted by A.S Naze to test for Potassium Bromate in breads across the city of Port-Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State.
30 different brands of bread were obtained altogether—15 each from both Port-Harcourt North and South.
The result of the research however reveals that all the 30 bread samples analyzed, save one, contain Bromate in high quantities above safe levels for human consumption.
Meanwhile, earlier in July, another research was carried out by Nosa Omorodion in Enugu, wherein 15 bread samples of different brands were collected across the State.
But unlike in Porthacourt, out of the 15 samples, none was able to scale through. All the bread samples analyzed contained Bromate in heavy quantities.
Likewise, the same result was obtained in Katsina State by Shuaibu Lawal, back in 2013. None of all the 20 bread samples he examined was bromate-free.
The duo of Gwagwalada, a town in the Federal Capital Territory, and Nassarawa State, were also researched upon by scientists for bromate-free breads. Sadly, none was found.
Rather, “the result showed that the locations have bakeries that use Bromate content higher than permissible limit,” Naze reveals.
Dietitian Goofs
Mrs. Sandra (not real name) is a practicing dietitian. Her work is to diagnose and give professional advice over diet and nutrition in relation to health and disease. She however dismissed the carcinogenicity of bread —even when bromated.
Asked if —and how— she advises her patients over bread consumption, given the adamant use of Bromate in bakeries, she replied strongly that “there is no scientific proof that bread causes cancer.” Bread does not cause cancer, she insisted.
Based on WHO’s and NAFDAC’s assertions, however, the dietitian’s claim is invalid. Bread can cause cancer, if they harbor bromate.
‘I Don’t Know Whether My Improver Contains Bromate’ – Baker
Sequel to a phone conversation, this reporter was invited to Mr. DBoss’s Bakery in Ogun State. “It’s just like asking a cook what the content of Maggi is,” were his words, when he was questioned about the Improvers he used for baking.
He was in fact surprised to know that there are different types of Improvers. He claimed he did not know the constituent of his Improver, or whether it contained Bromate or not.
He hurried inside, came out with a yellow sachet, at the front of which was a chef, and a text which read “Betta Baker Bread Improver.” As he handed it over to the reporter, he said, “go and analyze it yourself, take it to the lab, and see whether there is Bromate in it.”
“I only buy NAFDAC Approved Improver from the market; I don’t know whether it contains Bromate or not,” said Mr. D’Boss, popularly known by his bakery’s name.
D’Boss is like many other Bakers, including Akeem, popularly known as Oyo, who has no idea what they feed their customers, and are not committed to finding out— be it cancer, or other disease.
How ‘NAFDAC Approved’ Bread May Turn Out Bromated
Since the ban of Bromate from the baking industry, bread with labels bearing a large, bold “BROMATE FREE” have flooded the market. Many of them carry a NAFDAC Number, suggesting their approval by the agency. Yet, some breads from this category are often confirmed to contain bromate during research analyses.
This is because, according to A.O Emeje, a researcher, many bakers, in a bid to get approved by NAFDAC, bake a set of breads specially for presentation to NAFDAC for analysis. But after the approval, they backslide and return to their old ways.
Compared to other bread Improvers, Potassium Bromate is very cheap. So bakers resort to the illegitimate use of it, despite prohibition.
A Bromate seller in Lagos, Ojukwu, said bakers are one of his regular customers, followed by local morticians, who use the chemical for preserving dead bodies.
Has NAFDAC Relented?
Since 2004, when Potassium Bromate was prohibited by the National Agency for Food And Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, only few attempts have been made so far by the Agency to checkmate the compliance level of bakers to the new standard.
In 2015, the agency organized an on-the-spot bread test for various bakeries across the country, which has remained the most significant of its efforts ever since, in eradicating Bromate.
Apparently, NAFDAC seems to have relented in its pursuit of a Bromate-free bread industry.
However, as at the time of gathering this report, all efforts by this reporter to reach NAFDAC proved abortive, as several calls placed to the agency’s hotlines were not picked, and enquiries sent to its email box have not been responded to.