These companies started bleaching the flour. Simply because they wanted to lure the consumers with a whiter flour. Patents were being filed in countries like Britain, the US, and France. Several people were strictly against this. They saw the harm in the practice. Several leaders raised their voices against this. Such as American Chemist Harvey Wiley. He used the slogan ‘Save the Bread, Save the Nation’.
But when the matter went into the courts, the bread manufacturers argued that since they were using a minuscule amount of nitrates and chemicals, it wouldn’t be very harmful. This is why, to date, flour is bleached in America. A bleaching agent chemical that is very famous is Potassium Bromate. Potassium Bromate was used in bread for the first time in 1916, not only did it make the bread whiter, but also helped it expand more. The problem is, today we know this chemical causes kidney problems, and thyroid cancer in rats.
This is why this chemical has been banned in the European Union, Canada, Brazil, and China. What about India? In a lab study in May 2016, by the Centre for Science and Environment, to check the levels of harmful Potassium Bromate and Potassium Iodide, they tested 38 different bread samples.
