By Chioma Obinna
Hard time awaits Nigerian bakeries, particularly producers of unlabelled bread, a.k.a. ‘Agege’ as the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) yesterday vowed to clampdown on any bakery using the banned carcinogenic substance, potassium bromate.

Also, the Agency has confiscated three 40ft trailer loads of potassium bromate tablets at the Tincan Island Port Lagos.
To this end, NAFDAC is commencing a nationwide analysis of all bread products to determine whether they contain potassium bromate.

Disclosing these in Lagos while briefing journalists on the latest seizure, the Director- General of the Agency, Dr. Paul Orhii who blamed the rising incidence of kidney failure, cancers and Asthma on such carcinogenic substances like potassium bromate, threatened that any bakery found wanting would be sanctioned accordingly.

He reiterated that, “The ban on the use of potassium bromate as a bread enhancer is very much in force and the agency is determined to enforce this ban and prosecute any violator.”

Orhii, who regretted that in spite of the massive public enlightenment on the dangers of the use of potassium bromate and its negative health implications, lamented that unscrupulous persons have continued to import the carcinogenic substance.

His words, “We have been enlisting bread products and we have given them what bread should be and how it should look like in terms of packaging. Unlabelled bread is not part of our specifications of how bread should be. Any unlabelled bread will be impounded and the bakery shutdown. We want to ensure that bread is safe for public consumption.”

Speaking on the confiscated three 40ft trailer loads of potassium bromate, the DG said the products which were declared as baby walkers was imported by Bumazak enterprises Limited and cleared by Blessed Alpha & Omega as baby walkers.
Continuing, Orhii explained that the number of jars seized is 60,000 with an estimated street value of N600 million which can serve more than 50 trailer loads of flour.

The label on the packaging jars reads PAR-BRO-60 and each carton contains 20 jars of 250 tablets of potassium bromate.
On how to identify bread with potassium bromate, NAFDAC Director of Laboratory Services, Mrs Stella Denloye said “When you squeeze a bread product and it gets smaller without bouncing back, that shows that the bread is made with potassium bromate but when you squeeze and it bounces back immediately, shows that the bread is free of bromate.”

The Ports Inspectorate Director, Mrs Edosa Ogbeide also hinted that the department has begun surveillance at night and raid in the morning since bread is produced mostly at night and sold in the mornings.