In the early 1960s, potassium iodate was added to bread as a dough conditioner.
Pittman, (14) et al, compared the mean value of the 24-hour radioiodide uptake by the thyroid gland in a group of 63 euthyroid subjects prior to iodization of bread with another group of 53 euthyroid subjects following the use of potassium iodate in bread.
In the US, various forms of iodine have been used in food products: iodides in table salt since the 1920s; iodates in bread from 1960-1980; and diatomic iodine in municipal waters (on an experimental basis only).
Without interfering substances present in the gastrointestinal tract, inorganic iodine, iodates, and iodides are quantitatively absorbed.
Pilot studies were performed in order to quantify the amount of the reductant needed for the reduction of iodine and iodate to iodide.
Medical iodophobia resulted in the removal of iodate from bread 20 years ago, replacing it with the goitrogen bromate.