Subway Bread Health Concern
“Yoga Mat Material In Subway Bread”
Subway restaurants were recently busted for using an unpronounceable ingredient in their bread. “Azodicarbonamide” is the same chemical used to make yoga mats, shoe soles and other rubbery objects. It is not supposed to be food or even eaten.
And it certainly is not ‘fresh’!!
Activist blogger Vani Hari ( the FoodBabe ) wrote a petition that garnered more than 65,000 signatures and Subway subsequently announced that it was already starting to phaseout the dangerous chemical.
But it leaves you wondering how many tons of bread were consumed by their customers who were totally unaware of this over the years.
So what is Azodicarbonamide?
It is a conditioner used by bread processors to give bread that airy and chewy texture.
And it is a bleaching agent used in flour.
But it is also a blowing agent used by the rubber and plastics industry to make products like shoe soles and yoga mats springy.
The European Union and the United Kingdom have banned its use in bread and flour, but the US Food and Drug Administration considers it “generally safe”.
Why is it bad?
As an industrial blowing agent, azodicarbonamide is known to trigger asthma in workers, but it is the breakdown products of azodicarbonmide that are the concern.
When flour containing this chemical is baked, a cancer producing agent called urethane is formed.
When the highest allowable amounts of azodicarbonamide are used, urethane spikes to concerning levels.
The risk depends on how much of the chemical is used, but we as consumers often times do not know that information.
Even though there are other bigger risks in our diet, we should not be consuming additives that knowingly increase our cancer risk.
You will find azodicarbonamide only in refined white flours but not in whole grains.
Another good reason to eat whole grains.
Subway is not the only chain using it.
McDonald buns contain it and so do many cereals and other products made with processed flours.
But, there is another dough conditioner called ‘potassium bromate’ that we also need to be concerned about.
Most of it breaks down during baking but trace amounts linger in the baked bread posing a potential cancer risk.
The good news is most organic breads do not contain azodicarbonamide so read your labels and go organic when you can.
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