Are New York bagels and pizza about to deflate?
A new bill moving through Albany could change how some of the state’s most iconic foods are made, but supporters say the impact on quality will be insignificant.
The proposed legislation, called the Food Safety and Chemical Disclosure Act, would ban potassium bromate, a flour additive often used to improve dough texture, which has been linked to cancer in some studies. The bill cleared both the state Assembly and Senate in late April and now heads to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk.
“While the use of food additives to enhance the shelf life, taste, or texture of various commercial food products is nothing new, the science behind the health effects of increased consumption of such additives is shedding new light on just how dangerous some of them can be,” the bill memo says, per The New York Post. “This legislation protects New Yorkers from three of the most pervasive and harmful food additives.”
State Sen. Brian Kavanagh (D), one of the bill’s sponsors, told People it addresses gaps in federal oversight.
“Our federal food safety system has major gaps that expose people to unnecessary health risks when they eat food in our country,” he said. “I love New York pizza in particular, but the Italians seem to be doing just fine making pizza for the last more than three decades now without potassium bromate.”
“The retailers and restaurants will have plenty of time to use up their stock of flour and get alternatives,” he added. The outlet noted that small businesses have three years to comply once the proposal becomes law.
“This is not gonna harm any retailer. It’s not gonna harm anybody who wants a good bagel,” Kavanagh added. “We don’t think this is gonna have any meaningful effect on people’s ability to make food they wanna make or buy food they wanna buy, and we don’t think it’s gonna have any meaningful effect at all on the affordability of food.”
Another co-sponsor of the bipartisan bill insisted that the measure would not affect the quality of the food.
“Any substance that is linked to cancer has no place in our food, period,” State Sen. Cordell Cleare (D) said. “Other countries have banned potassium bromate without any diminution in the quality of flour-based products and the same will happen in New York.”
If signed into law, the bill would also force companies to disclose all ingredients, including listing any that qualify as “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) food ingredients. Kavanagh said the bill would remove “secrecy around chemicals that are added to our food,” adding that greater transparency will help consumers make more informed choices.
The proposal is similar to efforts in California and aligns more closely with regulations already in place in the European Union.
