By Dada Ibukunoluwa
The Manager of the UI Bakery, Mr. Taiwo Olatunde made this statement in response to the question asked on the quality of ‘UI Bread’ on Thursday, when the executives of the Union of Campus Journalists (UCJ) paid a courtesy visit to him.
He stated: “We train bakers and change them as well as our equipment from time to time to suit a healthy and quality production. Unlike most bakeries who use potassium bromate, a cheap booster for their dough, we use fourteen ingredients recommended by NAFDAC in our dough.”
He added: “If the bread is shiny, it might have bromate. If it draws and feels like chewing gum while eating—bromate. If there are no crumbs while eating—bromate. If water doesn’t permeate easily—bromate.”
Mr. Taiwo continued that, “However, it is sad that loaves with the characteristics I just mentioned are what people want. They are more concerned about what will fill them than the quality and this is a major reason for more cases of cancer in Nigeria in recent times”
He, however, highlighted generation of revenue for the university and catering for students as the two major reasons for the establishment of the bakery. He also explained that the bakery has three sections to aid the smooth running of activities. The sections are the reception or sales sections, the production section and the Administration section which comprises of the store, accounts’ office and the manager’s office
Mr. Olatunde said there are training programmes for students who are interested in “baking,” harping that they can pick-up a form at a token of Five hundred Naira, after which they would pay a subsidized amount of Ten thousand Naira—as the university’s students—for the training sessions.
