General Mills subpoena: overview
- Florida has issued its first subpoena in a consumer-protection probe into potassium bromate, targeting General Mills
- The additive is banned across the EU, Canada, China and dozens of other countries, but remains GRAS-listed in the US
- Florida joins a growing list of states, including California and New York, moving to restrict or ban the ingredient
Florida attorney general James Uthmeier has issued a civil subpoena to General Mills Inc and General Mills Operations LLC, demanding records on potassium bromate use across the company’s Florida supply chain.
The move, announced at a press conference at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine on 13 July, falls under the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Uthmeier stopped short of accusing General Mills of wrongdoing.
“Nobody is getting sued today, yet,” he told reporters. “We want to learn more information.” His office wants to know which products sold in Florida contain potassium bromate, who has been buying them, what General Mills has disclosed about the additive to those buyers, and what internal research the company holds on its health effects.
The subpoena names four specific flours: Pillsbury Potentate High Gluten Flour, Pillsbury Best Bakers Patent Flour, Gold Medal All Aces Bakery Flour and Gold Medal Superlative Bakers Flour, all sold in 50lb bulk sacks.
Investigators are also asking for a list of the state’s top purchasers between 2023 and 2026, and whether any bromated flour has made its way into Florida’s public schools, from pre-kindergarten through to twelfth grade.
“This investigation is about protecting Florida families and providing transparency to our consumers,” said Uthmeier. “Floridians have a right to know what is in the food they buy and feed their children. We are investigating the supply chain for the presence of potassium bromate in products sold across our state, including any disclosures made to purchasers and research on its potential health effects.”
An old fix the rest of the world dropped
Potassium bromate has been part of American baking since it was first patented in 1914. As an oxidiser, it strengthens gluten structure late in the dough stage, giving loaves a taller rise, a finer crumb and a longer shelf life. It’s particularly suited to enclosed, high-speed systems such as the Chorleywood process, where dough doesn’t get the natural ageing that comes from exposure to air. It also remains one of the cheapest and most effective options a baker can reach for.
None of that, however, has kept regulators on side.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies potassium bromate as possibly carcinogenic to humans, a finding rooted in animal studies that showed raised rates of tumours in rats, with milder effects recorded in mice and hamsters.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reached a similar conclusion in 1993, listing bromate as a Group B2 carcinogen. The EU banned it in 1990, Canada followed in 1994, China in 2005 and India in 2016, with Brazil, Argentina, South Korea and Peru among the other countries to prohibit it since. Japanese bakers largely walked away from the additive in 1980, though one manufacturer began using it again in 2005 after deciding newer production methods made it safe.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken a different path, leaving potassium bromate on its GRAS (Generally Recognised As Safe) list, a status that survives partly because the additive was in use before the 1958 law tightening rules on suspected carcinogens took effect.
The agency’s position rests on the idea that oven heat converts bromate into potassium bromide, a compound the FDA’s own food additive safety office has likened to ordinary salt.
A 2019 report found the agency had worked with the American Bakers Association (ABA) and the American Institute of Baking (AIB) to push residual bromate levels down to under 20 parts per billion, well inside its own safety threshold of 75mg/kg of flour.
It’s exactly that threshold Florida’s subpoena is now digging into.
A patchwork Florida is now joining
Florida isn’t breaking new ground so much as catching up with a trend that’s been building since California passed the Food Safety Act in 2023, banning potassium bromate alongside propylparaben, Red Dye No 3 and brominated vegetable oil.
That ban doesn’t take effect until January 2027, but it set off a wave of copycat legislation: New York passed its own restrictions this year; Illinois, Arkansas and Maryland have bills working through their statehouses, and Utah has already barred the additive from school meals.
A Florida bill covering similar ground died in committee in 2025, and state representative Meg Weinburger, who co-sponsored it, says she now plans to bring it back with Uthmeier’s backing. “We should be protecting our kids and our families and everything that we’re eating and feeding them,” she said, adding that she’s looking forward to “getting it across the finish line” this time.
Manufacturers now face a growing list of state-level rules that looks less like a handful of outliers and more like a genuine compliance headache, with different reformulation deadlines and disclosure requirements depending on where a product ends up on shelf.
The FDA opened its own formal review of potassium bromate in March 2024, adding it to a wider list of legacy additives under fresh scrutiny, but as of this year that review remains stuck in an information-gathering phase, with no public timeline for a decision.
Industry bodies including the ABA have pointed out that plenty of bakers have already dropped the additive voluntarily. In fact, ABA president and chief executive Eric Dell said the industry has already made “significant progress in reducing and, in many cases, eliminating” the additive, and that members are building on that work rather than starting from scratch.
Florida’s subpoena, however, suggests the state isn’t willing to take that progress on trust and wants documented proof of exactly what’s still moving through its supply chain.
Uthmeier didn’t hold back on the health risks, citing links to kidney, thyroid and abdominal cancer, and describing potassium bromate as genotoxic, with the potential to cause oxidative stress and DNA damage. His office also noted, pointedly, that FDA approval “doesn’t necessarily make it right”.
Nobody is facing a courtroom yet, and General Mills has yet to comment publicly on the subpoena. But this could just be the start. Uthmeier has already signalled that more are coming, telling reporters “the list will likely go on from there”.
General Mills just happens to be first in line.
Studies:
Shanmugavel V, Komala Santhi K, Kurup AH, et al.Potassium bromate: Effects on bread components, health, environment and method of analysis: A review. Food Chem. 2020 May 1;311:125964. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2019.125964. Epub 2019 Dec 9. PMID: 31865111.
Galliard T, Collins AD. Effects of oxidising improvers, an emulsifier, fat and mixer atmosphere on the performance of wholemeal flour in the chorleywood bread process. Journal of Cereal Science, Volume 8, Issue 2, 1988, Pages 139-146, ISSN 0733-5210, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0733-5210(88)80024-9
McDorman KS, Pachkowski BF, Nakamura J, et al. Oxidative DNA damage from potassium bromate exposure in Long-Evans rats is not enhanced by a mixture of drinking water disinfection by-products. Chem Biol Interact. 2005 Apr 15;152(2-3):107-17. doi: 10.1016/j.cbi.2005.02.003. PMID: 15840384.
