Chemical and physical food safety contaminants and preventive control on sourdough and bakery products

Abstract

Bakery products have a significant role in community nutrition, and their contamination risks by different sources are important because of the high consumption rate. The contaminants in bakery products can come from external sources and/or form during processing. While the main external food safety contaminants in bakery products are pieces of glass, metal, or plastic; some unwanted food particles; insects; pests; mycotoxins; pesticides; and toxic metals, the process contaminants are hydroxymethylfurfural, acrylamide, dicarbonyl compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heterocyclic amines, free radicals, and monochloropropanols. The selection of raw materials with lower microbial load; applying some physical treatments such as sifting; using magnets/metal detectors before the production; production with a small surface area products; avoiding overfermenting; foregoing sugar or caramel coatings; and baking at high temperature for short durations can reduce the contaminants of bakery products. © 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.