Flour treated with chlorine dioxide: Multigeneration tests with rats

Abstract
Two groups of rats were bred and maintained for six successive generations on diets containing over 70% by weight of dried bread. For one group the bread was made from untreated flour and for the other from flour treated with 48 p.p.m. of chlorine dioxide. For each generation the number of litters produced, the number per litter, the birthweight, the weight of the young at 7, 14 and 21 days during suckling, the weight at weaning, the survival rate at weaning, the post‐weaning rate of growth to maturity and food consumption during growth were observed. In these respects there was no significant difference between the two groups in any of the generations or over all generations. The observations as a whole provide no evidence that treatment of flour with chlorine dioxide at this level produces a factor which adversely affects the nutrition of the rat during reproduction and growth.