{"id":227949,"date":"2026-05-12T00:13:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T00:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/227949\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T00:13:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T00:13:53","slug":"will-a-ban-on-bromated-flour-change-new-york-bagels-and-pizza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/227949\/","title":{"rendered":"Will a Ban on Bromated Flour Change New York Bagels and Pizza?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recipe for Utopia Bagels<\/a> has remained unchanged since the popular bakery opened in Queens in 1981. Louie and Ernie\u2019s Pizza<\/a> in the Bronx has used the same ingredients in its slice for nearly as long.<\/p>\n

But if lawmakers in Albany prevail, these bakers and thousands of others in New York State will have to stop using a key component, bromated flour, potentially raising costs and changing the character of their breads, bagels and pizza crusts.<\/p>\n

Last month by a wide margin, legislators passed the Food Safety and Chemical Disclosure Act, which bans potassium bromate (along with propylparaben and Red Dye No. 3) from any food sold in the state. The bill now goes to Gov. Kathy Hochul; a spokeswoman said only that the governor \u201cwill review\u201d it.<\/p>\n

Used by an estimated 80 to 90 percent of commercial bakeries in the state, bromated flour makes doughs springier, stretchier and more consistent. Sam Silverman, a New York bagel evangelist who runs tours, classes and an annual gathering called BagelFest<\/a>, said that after bromated flour became widely used in the 1940s, it helped create the signature modern New York bagel: tall and fluffy, with significant chew. In pizza, it produces an airy crust with enough structure to hold sauce and cheese, and enough pliability to be folded in half.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone wants that \u2018Saturday Night Fever\u2019 slice<\/a>,\u201d said Tori Tiso, the owner of Tori T\u2019s Pizzeria<\/a> in Malverne, N.Y.<\/p>\n

But since the 1980s, when studies first linked potassium bromate to thyroid and kidney cancers in rats, it has gradually been removed from the food supply<\/a> in most of the world. It\u2019s banned in China, Canada, India, the European Union and many other countries. Starting next January, it will be illegal in California, as part of the so-called \u201cSkittles ban<\/a>\u201d signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023.<\/p>\n

Frank Scavio, a Brooklyn native who co-owns five Paesan\u2019s Pizza<\/a> shops in the Albany area, has mounted a campaign to carve out an exception for bromated flour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re we going to change something New York is famous for, we should be sure there\u2019s a good reason for it,\u201d he said, pointing out that the carbonized flour in a well-charred pizza crust and the alcohol in vodka sauce can also be considered carcinogenic.<\/p>\n

For customers, the most likely outcome of the ban will be higher prices, as many bakers have to switch to more expensive flours, and hire more skilled labor to produce the same results.<\/p>\n

Potassium bromate is just one of many chemical \u201cdough improvers\u201d that have been routinely added to commercial white flour since the 1940s. All are meant to take the guesswork \u2014 some call it skill \u2014 out of baking bread.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt accommodates for less-knowledgeable staff and ensures consistency,\u201d which is the hardest thing for any bakery to pull off, said Mark Bello, the owner of Pizza School NYC<\/a>, who teaches both amateurs and professionals. \u201cWhen you go to a particular slice shop, you want your pizza to be the same, to remind you of why you went there in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed ban has already touched off a kind of identity crisis, and some conflict, among the state\u2019s old-school bakers, who stick fiercely to tradition, and newer craft bakers, who pride themselves on natural ingredients. Many are already using unbromated flours.<\/p>\n

At age 25, Jesse Spellman of Utopia Bagels is feeling the weight of generational responsibility. The original location on Utopia Parkway in Whitestone, Queens, still uses one of the last bagel-specific ovens in New York, a huge Cutler model from 1947. (A bagel oven is designed around the shape of the bagel for maximum airflow and even heat.)<\/p>\n

Mr. Spellman is resigned to giving up bromated flour, he said, but has much research and development to do to match the exact qualities of his grandfather\u2019s product.<\/p>\n

For 45 years, each hand-twisted Utopia bagel has been made with Gold Medal All Trumps flour, one of the country\u2019s longtime staples for commercial baking, along with Pillsbury\u2019s Balancer and So Strong flours. (Both are now made by General Mills.)<\/p>\n

The muscular brand names refer to the flours\u2019 extra-high protein content, produced from \u201chard\u201d wheat that creates strong, stretchy gluten strands. Many craft bakers, and more and more commercial ones, use the King Arthur Baking Company\u2019s version, Sir Lancelot, which is not bromated. Unbromated versions of most flours are available, often at a higher cost (though General Mills charges the same for both bromated and unbromated flours).<\/p>\n

\u201cThese other flours are two times the money for the same or even a little worse of a product,\u201d Mr. Spellman said. \u201cBagels are going to hit $3 or $4. People are going to be mad,\u201d (Utopia\u2019s bagels are $2 each; craft bagels, like those at Apollo Bagels<\/a>, start at $2.50 and go up from there.)<\/p>\n

Ms. Tiso, who grew up working at Louie and Ernie\u2019s Pizza, her father\u2019s Bronx slice shop, struck out on her own and opened Tori T\u2019s on Long Island in 2024.<\/p>\n

She started using unbromated flour eight months ago, and tinkered with her recipe accordingly. She said adding olive oil to her dough helped with browning, and swapping in dry yeast for fresh provided springiness. \u201cIt gave me back that pop,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The traditional New York pizza crust she was raised on has a quick-rising dough powered by yeast and sugar and built for speed. \u201cWhen you\u2019re turning out pizzas for the lunch rush and then for after school and then dinner, you can\u2019t take chances,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But she is happy to be moving away from shortcuts like bromated flour and toward the ingredients used at high-end new pizza shops like Ceres and Ops, where slow-rising, naturally leavened doughs made from local grains are the standard. \u201cIt\u2019s good for the industry to have cleaner ingredients and more knowledge,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Scavio, who is crusading against the proposed ban, is skeptical of the virtues of such pies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose guys are just trying to justify charging $40 or $50 for a pizza,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The recipe for Utopia Bagels has remained unchanged since the popular bakery opened in Queens in 1981. Louie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8202,89506,29745,89507,40987,17073,9,24,55,54,49,56,343],"class_list":["post-227949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-bagels","tag-bakeries-and-baked-products","tag-bread","tag-flour","tag-hazardous-and-toxic-substances","tag-law-and-legislation","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-ny","tag-pizza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}