Bakers move to ditch banned ingredient

15/02/2012 Fikile Tshabalala with Pioneer Sasko bread in JHB. (128) Photo: Leon Nicholas

15/02/2012 Fikile Tshabalala with Pioneer Sasko bread in JHB. (128) Photo: Leon Nicholas

Published May 30, 2014

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Cape Town - Bread producers are scrambling to remove a potentially harmful chemical ingredient from the baking process.

Azodicarbonamide (ADA), the chemical that gives elasticity to yoga mats and running shoes, is legally used as an “improving agent” by Pioneer Foods, which produces Sasko bread, and other bakers.

This is banned in the UK, Europe and Australia. A World Health Organisation report in 1999 noted complaints about respiratory symptoms associated with exposure to the chemical. However, it acknowledged the effects had not been fully evaluated, including the “potential (of) carcinogenic and reproductive effects”.

Amid growing political and consumer pressure, Pioneer Foods told the Cape Argus on Thursday it had discontinued the use of ADA.

It is not clear whether products on the shelves still contain it.

Similar commitments have been made by Woolworths, which had asked its supply chain to phase out the ingredient by the end of this month, and Pick n Pay, which claimed it no longer used ADA in its baked goods.

However, Athol Trollip, DA leader in the Eastern Cape, where Sasko produces bread, has pointed out ADA is not listed in the “on-package” ingredients for flour or bread. This meant commitments to removing the chemical could not be guaranteed until it was legally required for its inclusion to be disclosed on packages.

“I have approached Anette Steyn (the DA’s shadow minister of agriculture) to pose a parliamentary question to the ministries for health and agriculture,” he said. “It is in the public interest to establish why a potentially harmful substance is not disclosed on a product’s labelling. The regulations should be amended to make this mandatory.”

Lulu Khumalo, Pioneer Foods group executive for corporate affairs, said their bread and flour complied with “all regulations relating to food ingredients inclusion and on-pack labelling”.

These do not require ADA to be listed as a “specific ingredient” because it is a micro ingredient that falls in the category of “flour improver”.

She said regulations governing the use of food additives in wheat and rye products allowed for minuscule amounts of ADA. This was in line with similar regulations in the US, where there has also been a consumer campaign for the removal of ADA from flour products this year.

Khumalo emphasised Pioneer Foods’s decision to remove the ingredient was unrelated to consumer or political pressure. “As part of a broader bread quality improvement project, Pioneer Foods commenced a process to remove ADA from all our formulations some time ago already… bread products produced as from May 21, 2014, no longer (contain) ADA.”

Khumalo did not mention potential health hazards as a reason for discontinuing the use of ADA.

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Cape Argus

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