The bill, now awaiting the governor's signature, would give businesses one year to stop using the suspected carcinogen
Roy Rochlin / Getty Images
New York state lawmakers have passed a bill banning potassium bromate, a flour additive used in roughly 80% of the state's pizza and bagel shops, according to the Associated Press. The measure now awaits Gov. Kathy Hochul's signature. A spokesperson for Hochul said she will review the bill.
As an oxidizing agent, potassium bromate speeds up dough preparation by cutting rest time and yielding a product with greater strength and chew — characteristics that have long defined New York-style pizza and bagels. Studies going back to the 1980s have shown it can cause cancer in laboratory animals, according to the Associated Press. The additive is already banned across the E.U., China, India, Canada, and California, where a prohibition takes effect next year.
Under the legislation, bakeries and other affected businesses would be allowed a full year before compliance is required, with a further window to exhaust any remaining stock of bromated flour they had already purchased, the Associated Press reported.
The legislation has divided bakeries and pizzerias across the state. Jesse Spellman, the second-generation owner of Utopia Bagels, said the transition would be neither easy nor cheap. "You could achieve that same bagel texture, but it's a lot more work and it's going to be a lot more expensive," he told the Associated Press. In anticipation of the potential prohibition, Spellman said he has been reworking his family's recipe, tinkering with how much yeast he uses and how long the dough is left to rise.
According to pizza historian Scott Wiener, a General Mills $GIS product called All Trumps — a bromated flour that dates back to the earliest grab-and-go pizza counters in New York City, roughly a century ago — remains the default choice at most neighborhood slice shops. The company has since introduced a bromate-free version of the flour at a comparable price point, though shops that turn to other suppliers may face higher costs, the Associated Press reported.
Wiener estimated that about 80% of pizza and bagel shops in New York use bromated flour. He described the bill as potentially transformative for the city's food identity but said the outcome could ultimately be positive. "Without such a fast turnaround for dough production, you're going to get more well-fermented doughs, which is going to lead to lighter pizzas that are easier to eat," he told the Associated Press.
Erik Millstone, a professor of science policy at the University of Sussex who studies the health effects of food chemicals, offered a blunt assessment of the additive. "From a consumer's point of view, there's nothing good about potassium bromate," he told the Associated Press.
Not everyone is dreading the change. Salvatore Lo Duca, a Brooklyn pizzaiolo who co-owns Lo Duca Pizza with five of his brothers, said discovering that bromated flour was a suspected carcinogen prompted him to reformulate the shop's recipe — a process that yielded a pleasant surprise. "It's a little more expensive, but the quality is there," he told the Associated Press.
Join 500,000+ readers who start their day with Quartz.
By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
