Bromated flour

From Wikipedia's entry on potassium bromate KBrO3:

Potassium bromate is often added to flour by commercial bakers as an improver that strengthens the dough and allows higher rising. It is an oxidizing agent and will be completely used up in the baking bread under the right conditions. However, if too much is added or if the bread is not cooked long enough at a high enough temperature, then a residual amount will remain which may be harmful (carcinogenic) if consumed. In the US, its use has not been banned because the use of it was sanctioned by the FDA before the Delaney clause of Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act went into effect in 1958.

From King Arthur Flour company:

If you are a baker who has never used bromated flour then you have nothing to worry about. If you are a baker currently using bromated flours and would like to switch you will have to make some slight adjustments to your mixing process, but in our view the effort is worth it as you will be able to provide your employees a safer working environment, and your customers with a healthier product.

The only changes that most bakers find they need to make are slightly longer mixing times. Bromate, being and oxidizer, rapidly strengthens the dough in the mixer bowl thus reducing mixing times. Thus, doughs made from unbromated flours will require slightly more mixing to achieve the same strength. As you do not want to increase the final temperature of your dough through this additional mixing you must lower your initial water temperature. Those changes should be all that is required by you to make the switch.

Some bakers find that they don’t have as much fermentation tolerance using unbromated flour. there are two fixes for this. One is to use preferments in your dough. This increases the acidity of your dough giving it m ore tolerance for longer proof times and overnight retarding. If this doesn’t fit your production requirements then you can consider us ing ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). Ascorbic acid is a slow acting oxidizer so you won’t get much benefit in the mixer but your dough will have more tolerance to overnight retarding.