Food Industry calls CSE report baseless

CSE says its new study points to presence of possible cancer-causing chemical in bread

The food industry, reacting to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) report on breads containing cancer and thyroid-causing chemicals, has called it “baseless”.

Vikram Ogale, director, National Supply Chain and Quality Assurance, McDonald’s India, said in a statement that they denied the claims made in the report.

“We do not use potassium bromate or potassium iodate in flour. The claims made by CSE are completely baseless,’’ he said.

A spokesperson of Domino’s said in an e-mail that at Jubilant FoodWorks Limited, “we believe in, and adhere to, the highest quality standards and Indian food laws. We follow all processes to maintain the highest level of food safety across all our restaurants. We only use additives/ingredients duly approved under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India Act [FSSAI] in all our preparations [across all our restaurants].”

KFC too, in a written statement, maintained that they do not use flour treated with potassium bromate or potassium iodate to manufacture their products.

“The safety and health of our customers are our priorities, and we are committed to following the best international standards while serving customers,” it said.

Britannia too said that it did not use potassium bromate or iodate as an ingredient in any of its bread recipes.

“Britannia has studied the report released by the CSE, and it states that no traces of potassium bromate or iodate were found in Britannia bread samples,” the company said in an emailed statement.

The CSE, however, said they stood by their report and that a detailed copy of the same was put up for the public and the industry alike.

“We had informed the industry about the results and sought their opinion. While Domino’s did not reply, others denied the presence of the two chemicals. We, however, stand by our study,’’ said Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general, CSE and head of the CSE lab.