Chemistry set

Appears in
Slow Dough, Real Bread
Slow Dough, Real Bread

By Chris J L Young

Published 2016

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To meet their need for speed, Big Bakers lace their dough with so-called “processing aids” and other artificial additives, which help the dough conform to the stresses of the process; to become stretchy enough to rise high and quickly, and then to have strength enough to stay risen during baking. Other substances might be used to deter the growth of mould and to help the finished loaf to stay softer for longer.

A few thousand years of people eating Real Bread has proved beyond any doubt that it is safe – no, actually good for the vast majority of us. Compared to this, artificial additives have only been subjected to a relatively short period of testing before being declared safe (or “generally recognized as safe” as the more pragmatic US Food and Drink Administration put it) for food manufacturers using them in their products.