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by opencl 2732 days ago
At least some of the bans seem overly cautious. For example looking at the first item on the list, KBrO3 aka potassium bromate used as a flour additive. KBrO3 is a demonstrated carcinogen but it converts almost completely to KBr during the baking process. Straight from the paper[1] that seems to have been the basis of the ban, "adverse effects are not evident in animals fed bread-based diets made from flour treated with KBrO3".

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1567851/

1 comments

Lots of people eat raw dough. Licking the beaters is a tradition. If it's carcinogenic when uncooked, that really should have a warning so that people can ensure they prepare it properly. Though, apparently I don't need to worry about that, because it's banned in Canada.
The lowest dose found to have any effect in rats would be equivalent to eating ~5kg of uncooked flour per day, every day. I do not think many people eat anything remotely close to that amount of raw dough.
In isolation, sure. How many of these little doses of toxins from hundreds of food additives does it take before the diet as a whole is toxic enough to have an adverse effect? Is anyone even watching the combinations found in typical diets?