ABSTRACT

Potassium bromate is an additive widely employed by bread makers to improve bread quality. On account of its deleterious effect and carcinogenicity in humans, certain levels of potassium bromate are not allowed in bread. Use of potassium bromate in bread is banned in many countries including Nigeria.

The present evaluation was carried out in eastern part of Nigeria where consumption of bread is high. Twenty-three different brands of breads were sampled. Quality assessment shows that, all the brands contained potassium bromate in a quantity that exceeded the minimum allowed by the FDA. In addition, all the sampled breads contained trace amount of lead, a substance which is harmful to health. On the basis of these, all twenty three bread brands sampled were considered unsafe for human consumption and bread makers should be discouraged from using potassium bromate as bread improver.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0    INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER TWO

2.0    LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1    CHEMISTRY AND PRODUCTION

2.2    USE OF POTASIUM BROMATE IN BREAD

2.3    TOXICITY OF POTASIUM BROMATE

CHAPTER THREE

MATERIALS AND METHODS

3.0    MATERIALS

3.1    METHOD

3.1.1 Analysis of potassium bromate in bread

3.1.2 Analysis of lead in the bread samples

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.0   SUMMARY

5.1   CONCLUSION

5.2   RECOMMENDATION

       REFERENCES