Ban on the Use of Potassium Bromate in Nigeria: A Review on Bread Bakers’ Compliance with Regulations

Abstract

Bread is one of the basic and popular foods consumed by the majority of the Nigerians irrespective of their ethnic or socioeconomic status. Potassium bromate (KBrO₃) is well known bread enhancer. Because of its negative health effects it has been banned in Nigeria and other countries. This paper aims to reviews studies on the use of KBrO₃ in bread to ascertain the safety of the bread products and to also evaluate bakers’ compliance with specified regulations. The paper also assesses the possible reasons for the use of KBrO₃ by the bread bakers (intentional or unintentional?) as well as addressed what regulatory bodies need to do to improve the bakers’ compliance. Fourty seven (47) articles were evaluated and 95.74% of them reported the presence of potassium bromate in the bread samples analysed, which suggests that use of Potassium bromate in bread production in Nigeria is very common and breads sold in Nigeria are unsafe for human consumption. This high usage may be attributed to factors such as bromine in wheat flour, adulterated improvers or due to use of brominated flour. Also, economic gain, high cost of ingredients and poor enlightenment and enforcement may also be contributing factors. Therefore, regulatory bodies need to adopt strategies such as Post-marketing Surveillance (PMS), on the-spot analysis, effective monitoring and enforcement, stringent regulations, and sustained routine and surveillance inspections to at least reduce, if not eliminate, the use of KBrO₃ as bread enhancer.