Breadmakers urged to reconsider adding folic acid

A senior health official in New South Wales is calling on the food industry to explain its opposition to the introduction of folic acid in all flour. Extensive research, including a report by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, suggests that adding the vitamin to flour helps reduce the number of birth defects such as spina bifida, stroke and heart disease.

The US, Canada and 38 other countries already add it to their flour.

Chief executive of Sydney West Area Health Service Steven Boyages says it is time Australia followed suit.

"If you're a pregnant woman or about to fall pregnant, and probably about 50 per cent of women of a pregnancy age are not having planned pregnancies anyway, if you don't have enough folic acid there is a risk that the baby will not form properly," he said.

"There is a risk of what we call a condition which is quite a horrendous condition called spina bifida."

Food manufacturers are arguing against the process, saying a pregnant woman would need to eat at least 10 slices of bread made with the flour a day to protect her unborn child.

Professor Boyages says that is not the point.

"The benefits are real. The effectiveness have been demonstrated," he said.

"The risks [have] absolutely been tested and are absolutely zero or minimal that we understand.

"The question then arises how much folic acid should we be putting into flour, not how many pieces should we be eating." SOURCE: © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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Posted May 6th, 2007 by Dinka