Is bread giving you cancer?

By Harry Mayes, Research Technician, Neuroscience

Some may turn their nose up when they read a list of ingredients and are met with scary ‘over-scientific’ names like ‘DATEM E472e’ or ‘Xanthum Gum’. Both of these ingredients are in bread, but fear not – they’re actually pretty useful. 

Tangible evidence of bread dates back further than most of known human history, with the oldest evidence going as far back as 14,000 years ago to a preserved flatbread found at an excavation site in Jordan. In its rudimentary form, the recipe was thought to be as simple as follows:

1. Make flour from wheat (likely by crushing between stones)
2. Create a dry pulp of water-born plants
3. Mix flour and pulp with water
4. Bake dough on fire (likely on a hot stone)

Some other recipes date back to Turkey 9,000 years ago, where ingredients like lentils or chickpeas replaced the pulp, but the process was still just as primitive those 5,000 years later.

Evidence of bread dates back further than most of known human history.

Humans experimented here and there over the following 14,000 years, with obvious culprits like natural yeasts finding their way into the recipes. Of course milk and honey were used for sweetness and salt for flavour. Interestingly, some historians attribute Ergot (a fungus that can grow on rye) to the Salem Witch Trials, due to the hallucinogenic effects of the mould.

The earliest record of the addition of seeds to bread dates back to around 4,000 years ago where the Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians began to add poppy and sesame seeds, along with spices like cumin and coriander. 

Bread is clearly a foundation in the history of human survival and cooking, found in pretty much every civilisation. Compared to the last 13,900 years, the recipe for bread has drastically changed, with the array of additives and ingredients ever growing. So, what are we actually consuming with each meal deal or bacon sandwich?

One key modern additive is Niacin (Vitamin B3), the addition originates from the drive to wipe out pellagra in the early twentieth century. Pellagra is a disease characterised by skin inflammation, sores, diarrhoea, and even dementia. It was particularly rife in 1930s southern USA states, whose diets disproportionately relied on foods like pork fat and molasses, which were affordable but nutritionally poor. 

When commissioned to find its cause, Joseph Goldberger noticed that those who drank milk were afflicted far less by the illness. He went on to conduct studies altering the diets of prisoners and showed that pellagra was not contagious as previously thought, after noticing that staff never contracted the illness. Which therefore led him to discover it was caused by a nutritional deficit. Not long after, in 1937, it was discovered that the nutrient inmates and residents of southern states were deficient of was Niacin. Soon after it was enforced into law that all bread should be reinforced with Niacin, which wiped pellagra from common parlance and meant bread could essentially serve as a cheap and affordable medicine for patients. Through this, Niacin became one of the most important additives of bread. 

Niacin, however, is quite friendly sounding compared to an ingredient like DATEM E472e. While ingredients like these might be in need of a rebrand or a crisis PR team with the increasingly wary attitude towards them, they’re actually incredibly useful – and harmless. DATEM E472e is simply an emulsifier introduced to bread in the 1960s as bread production was increasingly industrialised. It is able to enhance moisture retention, making the structure consistent and increasing shelf life. This massively reduces food wastage at the baking stage all the way to the shelf. It is universally recognised as safe across all food authorities, but its name alone throws itself into the furls of conspiracy and paranoia.

Fears surrounding the ‘overly-scientific’ nature have arisen.

Such fear of additives is not unfounded, however. In the 1800s, alum was regularly added to bread to make it whiter and improve its texture, especially in cheaper bread sold to the poor. Alum’s toxic effects caused long term neurological and digestive issues, becoming a public scandal in Victorian England. More recent controversies have seen the addition (and subsequent removal) of a variety of now recognised carcinogens such as bleaching agents like Azodicarbonamide, which gained prevalence in the twentieth century. Calcium propionate is another from this era. Used to prevent mould growth, it has been shown to cause hyperactivity in children, headaches, and issues in the gut flora, yet it is still permitted in most countries. 

With the historical track record of controversial additives, and studies showing even modern additives may be potentially harmful; it's unsurprising that fears surrounding the ‘overly-scientific’ nature have arisen, and it does throw into question whether modern additives have yet to be discovered side effects. 

The key to this issue is education about what’s in our food and more transparency and open conversation with the consumers from conglomerates within the industry. There are clearly extremely beneficial and useful reasons for involving additives in our loaves of Hovis, but it is fundamental that adamant and thorough research is conducted into each addition to prevent any more carcinogens from entering our food.

Featured Image: Jude Infantini