May 2, 2017 - 12:02pm
bromate in flour?
What do you guys think of brominated flours? I buy flour in bulk amounts from a restaurant supplier, and I just realized that the 100lb bread flours that I buy, contain potassium bromate. I read up on it and saw that it's banned basically everywhere except the united states. Lab studies link it to causing tumors in rats. I also read that it is fine as long as your dough is cooked long enough or at a high enough temperature. What are your thoughts?
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You've read up on it and probably know as much as most people about it. I don't use bromated flour because the minor benefits don't outweigh the possible risks. In general I don't like to add much more than water, salt, yeast and a pinch of diastatic malt to my flour. The avoidance of chemicals in food is one reason I don't eat much commercial bread, so I'm not inclined to add chemicals to my home-made bread.
I'm in the UK - bleaching flour has been banned since about 1992...
Which I only found out about relatively recently (7 or 8 years ago) when someone was trying to sell me bread made with unbleached flour - my curiosity got the better of me, so I did some research. Basically, it's not wrong to say someone is unbleached here, just "marketing"...
I was also surprised when I joined here to find that people in the US are still buying bleached flour. The usual argumens I've heard include the producers saying "it's what the consumer wants" - pushing the blame/reason down the line. There's also inertia - that's the way we've always done it - cost too much to improve the process, buy finer sifters, etc.
Whatever the reasons, I feel that as bread is a staple, then when I'm making it, I need to make it as natural as possible - however do note that I live in what some consider to be the organic capital of the world (Devon, England) and here untreated, organic, additives free is just ordinary day to day living... I'm also a member of the real bread campaign which has some good guidelines for bread making too.
I'd suggest getting in-touch with the place you're buying the flour from - ask what unbleached/untreated alternatives exist and maybe try a small sample if you can - I buy from several different mills, one is very old fashioned and the bread does bake to a dull beige/grey, but all others bake to a nice light creamy white. If they do an untreated flour and it works for you, then no-reason not to switch...
-Gordon
Potassium bromate is used to strengthen the dough, not to bleach flour.
To bleach flour are (or wewre) used chlorine dioxide or benzoyl peroxide.
Obviously got my head in the wrong clouds there, thanks for the correction.
Still - it's really not something I'd like in my bread, (and you have to declare it in some states by the looks of it too), so to the OP - see what alternative flours exist.
-Gordon