Some unscrupulous bakers are reportedly colouring white
flour brown in making bread as a substitute to using brown flour, NewsDay has
learnt.
The difference between colouring white flour brown and
brown flour is that the latter is made from whole-wheat that has not undergone
heavy processing, making it more nutritious compared to white flour.
The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) said it started
receiving complaints from consumers two weeks ago that brown bread was in fact
being made from white flour which has been made brown by colourants.
“We need to take it up with the National Bakers Association
of Zimbabwe (NBAZ). We need to approach them from a consumer perspective and
actually highlight those concerns because it is coming from the public. They
need to give an explanation,” CCZ deputy executive director Rosemary Mpofu told
NewsDay yesterday.
Mpofu said they made presentations to the Zimbabwe Wheat
Board two weeks ago, but did not have a chance to engage NBAZ on the concerns
around bread.
The price of a 50 kg bag has risen 14,02% from $32 to the
current $36,50 around the same time last year as a result of millers raising
prices to militate against shortages in wheat deliveries.
Inadequate levels of forex hampered wheat supply to
millers, which averages 30 000 tonnes against a monthly demand of 38 000
tonnes.
This saw National Foods Limited and Blue Ribbon Foods, the
biggest millers in Zimbabwe, resorting to reserve stocks of wheat in June this
year, leading to shortages in flour on the market, affecting deliveries to
bakers.
“You can check whether the suppliers have stopped supplying
brown flour, but as long as the suppliers are supplying brown flour there
shouldn’t be any issue. We are getting the brown flour, but we are not getting
enough as you are aware there is still a challenge on flour, rationing of
flour,” NBAZ president and chief executive officer of Bakers Inn Ngoni Mazango
said.
He, however, added that he had not heard of any bakers
colouring white flour brown to make bread in light of the reduced brown flour
delivery.
Apart from flour, bakers have complained about increases in
the price of enzymes, baking fats, improvers, gluten, calcium, kwiklocks,
premix and spare parts for the factories and distribution vehicles in making
bread. Newsday
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