Fortification of bread in the UK with folic acid could be mandatory by next year if proposals about to go out for consultation get government approval this autumn.
Later this month a new report on fortification with folic acid is expected from the government's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN). The Food Standards Agency (FSA) will then begin a 12-week consultation period with stakeholders on possible options. Based upon its findings, the FSA is expected to make recommendations to the health minister some time around September.
As well as taking into consideration consumer views and possible adverse effects of fortification on older people, the FSA is interested in understanding the cost-benefits of fortification and the impact or overlap with products that are already voluntarily fortified with folic acid, such as breakfast cereals and margarine.
"We haven't got a clear idea of what consumers think of this; that debate has all to play for," Gill Fine, FSA director of consumer choice and dietary health, told the Federation of Bakers' (FoB) Annual Conference last week.
Towards the end of 2005, SACN produced a report, which suggested a need to reduce the number of babies born with neural tube diseases such as spina bifida and recommended the fortification of flour with folic acid. While accepting its recommendations, the FoB suggested the approach should be to add folic acid along with other nutrients at the milling stage. But, it warned, other issues needed to be addressed.
FoB director Gordon Polson said: "If mandatory fortification is the government's decision, there are other issues that have to be resolved: including whether the folic acid would be added to organic flour, the impact of labelling, particularly the labelling of products for export, and the costs of addition and who would pay."
While nutritionists tend to be in favour of mandatory folic acid fortification, other industry sources believe it should be voluntary. Sainsbury's trading director Mike Coupe, said: "You should provide customers with informed choice rather than legislating."