The potassium bromate ban is a ban on one use of the chemical, not on the chemical. Country after country has taken it out of flour and bread, and the same white salt is still weighed out every day in assay laboratories and chemical plants. Buyers who confuse the two either refuse a legitimate order or place one they should not.
Seven facts settle most of the questions we are asked about it.
Potassium bromate is KBrO3, CAS 7758-01-2, a white crystalline salt that gives up oxygen readily. Producers make it by passing bromine into hot potassium hydroxide solution, or by electrolysing potassium bromide, and then crystallising the bromate out. Everything it is used for comes from that oxidising power. The grade we hold is on the potassium bromate product page.
A few parts per million in flour strengthens the gluten, so dough holds more gas and the loaf rises higher with a finer crumb. Most oxidising improvers act during mixing. Bromate acts late, through proofing and the first minutes in the oven, which is when a weak dough collapses. That timing made it the standard improver in commercial bread for most of the twentieth century.
In theory the oven converts all of the bromate to potassium bromide, which is harmless at that level. In practice the conversion depends on dose, bake time and temperature, and surveys kept finding bromate left in finished bread.
That mattered once animal studies showed it caused kidney and thyroid tumours in rats. The International Agency for Research on Cancer lists it in Group 2B, possibly carcinogenic to humans. In 1992 the joint FAO and WHO expert committee on food additives concluded that it was not appropriate as a flour treatment agent.
The list is long and still growing:
The United States is the large exception. Federal standards still list potassium bromate as an optional ingredient in bread and in bromated flour, although many American millers and bakers dropped it years ago. Japan allows it on the condition that none remains in the finished bread.
Food law changes, so check the current regulation for your own market before relying on any list, including this one.
Ascorbic acid does most of the same job and is permitted almost everywhere. It acts faster than bromate, so bakers pair it with enzymes such as amylases and glucose oxidase and adjust mixing and proofing to suit. Azodicarbonamide filled the gap in some markets and is itself banned in the EU. A formulation that still depends on bromate can be reworked, and the change is routine for any improver supplier.
A potassium bromate ban is food law. Outside food the salt is regulated like any other hazardous chemical: classified as a strong oxidiser, toxic if swallowed and a carcinogen, and shipped as UN 1484, Class 5.1. A laboratory in Brussels or Lagos can buy it legally for analytical work. It cannot put it in bread.
Analysis is the steady demand. A weighed amount of the salt releases an exact amount of bromine in acid solution, which makes it a primary standard for bromatometric titration of arsenic, antimony and hydrazine. With potassium bromide and acid it also generates bromine in the vessel, so a site can run a bromination without storing liquid bromine. Fine chemical and dye intermediate makers use it as a dry oxidising agent.
It is one of several oxidisers we supply, alongside hydrogen peroxide and perchloric acid, and it is listed with the rest of the other chemicals range.
We ask two questions on every enquiry: the end use and the destination country. For laboratory and industrial duty that is the whole conversation. For food use we ask which regulation it will be used under, and we do not supply it for flour or bread in a market with a potassium bromate ban.
We also confirm the CAS number, because potassium bromate (7758-01-2) and potassium bromide (7758-02-3) differ by one letter and one digit and are not interchangeable. If you need it for analysis or synthesis, send us the grade and quantity and we will quote it with a certificate of analysis and a safety data sheet.
It causes tumours in laboratory animals, and residues were found in baked bread. The International Agency for Research on Cancer lists it as possibly carcinogenic to humans, and the FAO and WHO expert committee withdrew its support for the flour use in 1992. Most food regulators followed.
Not federally. United States standards still allow it in bread and bromated flour. California has banned it in food from 1 January 2027, and many American bakers stopped using it voluntarily.
Yes, as a food additive. The EU and the UK have prohibited it in flour and bread since 1990. It is still legal to buy and use as a laboratory and industrial chemical under the usual hazardous substance rules.
Mainly analytical chemistry, where it is a primary standard for bromatometric titration, and chemical synthesis, where it is a dry oxidising agent and a way to generate bromine in the reaction vessel.
No. Potassium bromate is KBrO3, CAS 7758-01-2, a strong oxidiser. Potassium bromide is KBr, CAS 7758-02-3, a different salt with no oxidising power. Check the CAS number on any quotation.
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