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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.<\/p>\n
Eddie Hernandez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Frank Scavio, owner of Paesan\u2019s Pizza, packs frozen pizzas into a cooler in his restaurant in Latham.<\/p>\n
Paul Buckowski\/Times Union<\/p>\n
Gov. Kathy Hochul hasn\u2019t said whether she supports a bill that would ban an additive often used in the making of bagels and pizza.<\/p>\n
Will Waldron\/Times Union<\/p>\n
Frank Scavio, the owner of Paesan\u2019s Pizza, stands in a park located near his restaurant in Albany.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jim Franco\/Times Union<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Pizza on Oct. 14, 2022, on Ontario Street in Albany.<\/p>\n
Will Waldron\/Times Union<\/p>\n
When Frank Scavio texted\u00a0about bromate, I thought he might be talking about a couple of muscled friends at the gym. Get it? Bros who are mates?<\/p>\n
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A few minutes with Google, however, taught me\u00a0that potassium bromate is commonly used in bread, pizza and bagels, and that Scavio, the owner of Paesan\u2019s Pizza restaurants, has emerged as a prominent opponent of the move by state lawmakers to ban it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey want to make America healthy again,\u201d Scavio told me, \u201cand for\u00a0some reason, they decided to go after pizza.\u201d<\/p>\n
The object of Scavio\u2019s 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\u2019t said whether she\u2019ll sign it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The legislation<\/a> 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\u00a0requires food companies to detail certain ingredients that slip through a disclosure loophole.\u00a0<\/p>\n Make the Times Union a Preferred Source on Google to see more of our journalism when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIn 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,\u201d said<\/a> state Sen. Brian Kavanagh, a Democrat from Manhattan and the bill\u2019s primary sponsor.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Opposition to the disclosure requirements seems limited. It\u2019s the ban on potassium bromate, found to be a carcinogen in studies of rats and mice, that has generated the most\u00a0attention\u00a0<\/a>\u2014 and the most controversy. In no small part, that\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Scavio, criticizing what he calls \u201cTikTok science,\u201d notes that carcinogens are common in our foods and environment, and says\u00a0a state that promotes cannabis smoking has no place targeting pizza ingredients.\u00a0<\/p>\n What will lawmakers go after next? Alcohol? Hot dogs? Why target the dough but not, say,\u00a0pepperoni?<\/p>\n \u201cWho are they to pick and choose what we can eat and not eat?\u201d Scavio asks. \u201cIf you give power away, you don\u2019t get it back. I\u2019m not fighting for bromate. I\u2019m fighting for our rights.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But Scavio is fighting against\u00a0a broad\u00a0coalition led, to some extent, by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Donald Trump appointee who has long claimed that potassium\u00a0bromate is dangerous and should be removed from the food supply.<\/p>\n A few years ago,\u00a0Scavio 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!<\/p>\n In any event, bromated flour became common in the 1940s, which means many pizza and bagel makers don\u2019t know a world without the additive credited with making bagels chewy and pizza crusts airy.\u00a0Bromated flour is also cheaper than its alternatives, generally, and\u00a0Scavio and other critics of the legislation predict pizza and bagel prices will spike if\u00a0the state doesn\u2019t leave well enough alone.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s your opinion of this?\u201d Scavio eventually asked when we talked, leading me to stammer through a hardly cogent answer.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Well, on one hand, I doubt the ban would ruin New York bagels and pizza. The European Union\u00a0banned <\/a>potassium bromate 35 years ago, and nobody complains about the pizza in Italy. Canada also bans it, and the bagels in Montreal are terrific.<\/p>\n New York\u2019s small businesses would be given three years to adapt their products, and they\u2019re smart enough to adjust.<\/p>\n