Yes We Use Improvers In Our Bread, Not Saccharine – Chairman, Master Bakers

The Chairman Master Bakers Association, Ishaak Abdulraheem, has said bread bakers use improvers to enhance bread but not Saccharine.

Ishaak Abdulraheem said using Saccharine would be to the disadvantage of bakers. He explained that Saccharine makes bread light, unviable and unprofitable.

Abdulraheem stated that only illiterate bakers, not registered, may result to the use of Saccharine in the baking business.

He explained this in an interview with Arise TV, on Thursday, while responding to NAFDAC’s statement that most breads are failing lab tests.

The Master Bakers Association Chairman disclosed that bakers use improvers, which most are made in Nigeria. He noted that many licensed bakers knew the health implications of using Saccharine on human health.

Abdulraheem said, “The bottom line is illiteracy. There’s no any baker of the modern type that will even go for that. If you are using Saccharine, for example, you are reducing the dough weight of your bread. Yes. If you are using 1kg of sugar and you are using 10 grams of Saccharine, your volume will be very short.

“Forget about even the implications of health. So it is not viable. Profitable is not profitable using Saccharine. It’s not profitable. So that’s why I said a modern baker can never go for that. Particularly those of us in FCT. No, we have surpassed that level.

“There are improvers. Yes, there are different improvers. When you say improvers, bromate is an improver. Bromate has been discarded many years ago. Now even Nigerians are producing improvers of various types. There are companies that are producing improvers in Nigeria. Those bromates are not produced in Nigeria. They import them.”

Speaking on NAFDAC‘s role in monitoring bread production to avoid the use of unapproved substances, he added, “Before you are given this NAFDAC number, you have to provide all the analysis of ingredients you are using to produce your bread and once they come, they come to test.

“They just visit your factory or go to the market, sample your bread and take it to their lab and test. If there’s anything like that, they will sanction you. So that’s the way it is in Abuja here.”

He called on Nigerians to trust Nigerian breads. He, however, advised Nigerians to patronize bread from registered companies for quality health.

“This talk about saccharine, bromate. You know, it came out from the social media, there are bread and there are bread.

“We have big, big companies that are producing bread. So they will use saccharine to kill people when they know the implication? No,” he stated.