It appears your daily bread has turned cancerous, along with the air you’ve been breathing. A survey by the Centre for Science and Environment, a well-known NGO, has found that an overwhelming 84 per cent of 38 popular brands of pre-packaged breads in the national capital, including pizza bases, buns and the Indian pao used by some of the top fast-food outlets, contain potassium bromate and potassium iodate, two chemicals banned in many other countries.
The health ministry has, of course, ordered the proverbial inquiry and promised action, and FSSAI, the Indian food regulator, has removed potassium bromate from the permitted additives list. These actions in themselves reek of something far worse than knee-jerk reactions. The question is why were two suspect chemicals on the permitted list in the first place?
Are Indian lives so cheap that profit can actually be allowed to create potentially fatal health hazards? Do we have to leave it to an NGO to point things out. Carelessness alone cannot be the reason. And what about those — and they are an overwhelming number — who have been eating bread every day, and how have safety matters slipped to such an extent that our most common food is now deemed poisonous?
The answers lie in some unpleasant truths: no one cares to do his job and, yes, the profit motive usually wins. The percentages of the findings are so alarming that one might as well ask the reader to begin baking his own bread till matters are sorted out.
