The legislation does more than ban potassium bromate. It also bans two other ingredients common in processed foods, Red Dye 3 and propylparaben, a preservative, and includes broad restrictions on dyes used in food for schools.
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Frank Scavio, owner of Paesan’s Pizza, packs frozen pizzas into a cooler in his restaurant in Latham.
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Gov. Kathy Hochul hasn’t said whether she supports a bill that would ban an additive often used in the making of bagels and pizza.
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Frank Scavio, the owner of Paesan’s Pizza, stands in a park located near his restaurant in Albany.
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U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, the GOP nominee for governor of New York, bits into a slice of pizza during a press conference at Paesan’s Pizza on Oct. 14, 2022, on Ontario Street in Albany.
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When Frank Scavio texted about bromate, I thought he might be talking about a couple of muscled friends at the gym. Get it? Bros who are mates?
A few minutes with Google, however, taught me that potassium bromate is commonly used in bread, pizza and bagels, and that Scavio, the owner of Paesan’s Pizza restaurants, has emerged as a prominent opponent of the move by state lawmakers to ban it.
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“They want to make America healthy again,” Scavio told me, “and for some reason, they decided to go after pizza.”
The object of Scavio’s ire is the Food Safety and Chemical Disclosure Act, which passed the state Senate unanimously before sailing through the Assembly with broad, bipartisan support. The bill now awaits a decision from Gov. Kathy Hochul, who hasn’t said whether she’ll sign it.
The legislation does more than ban potassium bromate. It also bans two other ingredients common in processed foods, Red Dye 3 and propylparaben, a preservative, and includes broad restrictions on dyes used in food for schools. The bill also requires food companies to detail certain ingredients that slip through a disclosure loophole.
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“In spite of an onslaught of misinformation from the food industry, we are taking a critical step toward protecting New Yorkers from having to guess what potentially harmful chemicals might be lurking in the food we eat,” said state Sen. Brian Kavanagh, a Democrat from Manhattan and the bill’s primary sponsor.
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Opposition to the disclosure requirements seems limited. It’s the ban on potassium bromate, found to be a carcinogen in studies of rats and mice, that has generated the most attention — and the most controversy. In no small part, that’s because pizza and bagels are iconic New York City foods, and anything that threatens to change their taste and texture is going to get people talking.
Scavio, criticizing what he calls “TikTok science,” notes that carcinogens are common in our foods and environment, and says a state that promotes cannabis smoking has no place targeting pizza ingredients.
What will lawmakers go after next? Alcohol? Hot dogs? Why target the dough but not, say, pepperoni?
“Who are they to pick and choose what we can eat and not eat?” Scavio asks. “If you give power away, you don’t get it back. I’m not fighting for bromate. I’m fighting for our rights.”
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But Scavio is fighting against a broad coalition led, to some extent, by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Donald Trump appointee who has long claimed that potassium bromate is dangerous and should be removed from the food supply.
A few years ago, Scavio probably could have counted on Republicans in the Legislature to fight the ban, but opposition from the right has dissipated amid the so-called MAHA movement, which includes more than a few gym bros. Hello Joe Rogan!
In any event, bromated flour became common in the 1940s, which means many pizza and bagel makers don’t know a world without the additive credited with making bagels chewy and pizza crusts airy. Bromated flour is also cheaper than its alternatives, generally, and Scavio and other critics of the legislation predict pizza and bagel prices will spike if the state doesn’t leave well enough alone.
“What’s your opinion of this?” Scavio eventually asked when we talked, leading me to stammer through a hardly cogent answer.
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Well, on one hand, I doubt the ban would ruin New York bagels and pizza. The European Union banned potassium bromate 35 years ago, and nobody complains about the pizza in Italy. Canada also bans it, and the bagels in Montreal are terrific.
New York’s small businesses would be given three years to adapt their products, and they’re smart enough to adjust.
I also don’t object to governments banning dangerous additives and chemicals. Does anybody miss artificial trans fats? Or leaded paint? Our governments are too lenient toward chemicals, not too tough. (See: Hoosick Falls.)
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But it’s folly to believe that removing a chemical or two from processed foods will make Americans healthier, not when the real problem is…
Those processed foods. With their delicious emptiness, they lead us to consume far too many calories.
“The problem is obesity,” Scavio said. “We overeat.”
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That’s an unexpected argument from a pizza maker, perhaps, but he’s not wrong. Nor is Scavio wrong when he notes that if the state really wanted to target unhealthy foods, it would need to clear the shelves at your local grocery. That won’t happen anytime soon.
Note: This column has been updated since publication.