Poisonuos flour – Myth Vs Fact Part 1

In this notes I will try my best to ascertain whether or not the claim made by certain quarters on issues pertains to the toxicity of flour is a real issues or merely a nicely dressed hoax.

For those who are unsure on the reasons for this discussion, the following links will lead you to the issues that has been haunting social media for the past couples of week.



http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.blogspot.com/2013/09/tepung-beracun-dan-mengandungi-babi.html

First of all, flour or bleached flour is not the staple food for Asian or Malaysian specifically. In there, should lay a shred of comfort that we could cling onto. Nevertheless why cling on probabilities when we can actually verify from the web for factual data. In our endeavor to reveal the truth behind the story, perhaps it is wise for us to learn a little bit about flour production.

Wheat flour is made from wheat grain. Wheat kernel is composed of three sections, namely; bran, germ and endosperm.

The term whole wheat flour that we often heard refers to the use of all three sections of the kernel. Meanwhile white or refined flour only uses endosperm which is the largest part of the kernel, comprises of 83% of the kernel.

White flour which is treated with bleaching agent is known as bleached flour. Untreated white flour has yellowish properties given by Carotenoid Xanthophylls’ content in the flour. In typical kernel, 90% of the total Xanthophylls content is found in the endosperm. Carotenoids are prone to oxidation in exposure to atmosphere. Nevertheless, traditional method of bleaching is time consuming. As such, chemicals have been used to accelerate the bleaching process and ensuring it is of uniform color.

According to NIIR (a consultancy company based in India) flour bleaching processes use a combination of chemicals. Bleaching chemical used comprises of Benzoyl Peroxide and oxides of Nitrogen. Other types of chemical used for bleaching also include Nitrosyl Chloride which used in admixture with Chlorine.

Naturally the use of wide range of chemicals for a single process is a cause of concern. From this section onwards I will discuss issues as raised by the video link from youtube at the top part of this notes.

Myth: Toxicity of Benzoyl Peroxide

Fact: China and European Union did ban the use of Benzoyl Peroxide from being used as bleaching agent

Reality: The ban though, may raise concern, over its apparent toxicity of the said chemical, it is important to note that there are other chemical continued to be used in the bleaching process. Those chemical are such as Nitrosyl Chloride, Chlorine Dioxide and Acetone Peroxide. This list does not include chemical used for maturing process such as Azodicarbonamide or even chemical used for Bromation of flour. That being said Benzoyl Peroxide has been continuously used in USA, Canada and other countries. The reason for ban of Benzoyl Peroxide in China however is more than just the concern over its toxicity. The ban in China primarily is due to, first, the use of over the limit set (60mg/kg) by flour manufacturer in China (which is lower than international standard of around 100 mg/kg) and secondly, public opinion in China. As one last piece of trivia, Benzoyl Peroxide is also used in the production of Cheddar, Parmesan, Provolone, Romano, Swiss and many other types of chesses.

Royal Society of Chemist