Studying the Environmental Health Status and Consumption of Baking Soda in Military and Urban Lavash Bakeries of Tehran in 2012

Background and purpose:Consumption of baking soda, as a primary material for preparation of bread dough, has been banned due to its health complications in Iran. So bread production in our country faced difficulties and one part of them is related to health issues which are bread production. Also, in some cases, baking soda is used in the bread production. This study was done to study the environmental health status and consumption of baking soda in the military and urban Lavash bakeries of Tehran in 2012. Materials and methods:This is a descriptive comparative study done on Lavash bread production of 14 military bakeries and 14 corresponding urban bakeries near them. PH in the samples was tested based on Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran No. 2628. To check the status of environmental health and personal hygiene of bakeries, the check list of Cereal Research Center was used. Results:In terms of environmental health status,28.6% military bakeries and7.1% urban bakeries were at good level. In terms of personal hygiene, all bakeries were in the poor category. Also,42.9% of military Lavash bakeries and 14.3% of urban Lavash bakeries used baking soda in their bread production. Conclusion:Environment health and personal hygiene status in military bakeries are better than the urban bakeries however, hygiene status was not desirable in military bakeries. Also, baking soda consumption in military bakeries was more common than the urban bakeries. According to the results of this study, control of health status and avoiding baking soda consumption in the bakeries are necessary.