NEW YORK — After more than a decade of mixing and kneading dough in his family’s Brooklyn pizzeria, Salvatore Lo Duca recently made a distressing discovery: A key component of their thin-crust pies, bromated flour, contained a suspected carcinogen already banned in much of the world.<\/p>\n
So, in the back kitchen of Lo Duca Pizza, the 39-year-old began tweaking the original recipe handed down by his parents – with unexpected results.<\/p>\n
“When we started playing around with a different flour, I actually took a liking to it,” said Lo Duco, who runs the shop with his five brothers. “It’s a little more expensive, but the quality is there.”<\/p>\n
A looming ban on the additive, potassium bromate, may soon force thousands of pizzerias and bagel shops across New York into a similar transition.<\/p>\n
The bill, passed by state lawmakers and awaiting Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature, has divided dough makers, triggering fears that even a minor change to long-established baking practices could have dramatic implications for the city’s most iconic foods.<\/p>\n
“This is an earth-shaking event for New York pizza,” said Scott Wiener, a pizza historian who leads tours of notable slice shops. “That ingredient is part of the identity of the slice.”<\/p>\n
Employees at several stores that use bromated flour declined to comment for this story. But Wiener estimated that around 80% of pizza and bagel shops rely on a flour that contains the oxidizing agent, which reduces rest time for dough and helps ensure a stronger, chewier product.<\/p>\n
To some, the quintessential qualities of the New York bagel – its height and structure, external crispiness and springy bite – would not be possible, or at least as ubiquitous, without the chemical shortcut.<\/p>\n
“You could achieve that same bagel texture, but it’s a lot more work and it’s going to be a lot more expensive,” lamented Jesse Spellman, the second-generation owner of Utopia Bagels.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the possible ban, he too has been adjusting his family recipe, experimenting with yeast concentrations and rise time.<\/p>\n
“It’s going to take some time to get a product that we’re happy with,” Spellman said.<\/p>\n
Others, meanwhile, see the proposed ban on potassium bromate as long overdue. The additive is already outlawed across the European Union, China, India, Canada and – as of next year – California. Some experts have theorized that its absence outside the United States could be one reason that many Americans find baked goods in Europe and elsewhere more tolerable.<\/p>\n
“From a consumer’s point of view, there’s nothing good about potassium bromate,” said Erik Millstone, a professor of science policy at the University of Sussex focused on the health impact of chemicals in food.<\/p>\n
Going back to the 1980s, he noted, studies have shown it can cause cancer in laboratory animals, even in “perfectly reasonable” doses.<\/p>\n
“Most well-informed people would prioritize a long healthy life over a slightly softer and more soluble bun,” he said.<\/p>\n
Already, many of New York’s most celebrated pizzerias, particularly newer and more artisanal-leaning shops, tout their use of “unbromated” flour.<\/p>\n
But neighborhood slice shops still overwhelmingly rely on a General Mills flour called All Trumps, a standard ingredient since the city’s first grab-and-go pizza parlors opened nearly a century ago, according to Wiener. General Mills now sells an unbromated flour for roughly the same price, though other alternatives are costlier.<\/p>\n
In Wiener’s view, the move away from bromated flour could ultimately improve the quality of slices across the city.<\/p>\n
“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 and leave you with less of a stomachache,” he said. “It will require more of a process. But everything will be built back better.”<\/p>\n
If the legislation passes, businesses will have a one-year grace period to continue using the additive, plus additional time to go through unexpired bags. A spokesperson for Hochul said she will review the bill.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the possibility of the ban has rippled beyond New York’s borders.<\/p>\n
“Pizza in Florida is officially better than pizza in New York,” crowed Mario Mangilia, the owner of DoughBoyz in Florida in a recent Instagram post. He added that “my grandfather would haunt me” if the shop’s dough recipe were ever changed.<\/p>\n
But after he was confronted by several prominent pizza accounts over the additive’s health concerns, Mangilia appeared to walk back his pro-bromate stance.<\/p>\n
“I’ll tell you what,” he replied to a Long Island-based pizza owner. “I’ll test some different flour out to check it out.”<\/p>\n
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