Folic acid to be added to bread and flour to tackle serious birth defects such as spina bifida

Bread and flour will be fortified with an essential vitamin in a bid to prevent serious birth defects in hundreds of babies every year, the government has announced.

The new legislation will require millers to add folic acid to non-wholemeal wheat flour from the end of 2026.

Folic acid is a synthetic form of vitamin B9 and is also known as folate. It helps the body produce healthy red blood cells and new cells.

A deficiency of the vitamin during pregnancy can increase the risk of serious problems for babies, known as neural tube defects.

The neural tube is a structure that forms the brain and spinal cord of a developing baby from around day 21 of pregnancy to day 28.

The most common neural tube defects are spina bifida, when the spine does not develop properly, and anencephaly, when a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull.

The announcement has been welcomed by some parents who have children with spina bifida, including Bethan Simpson from Wickford in Essex.

He daughter Elouise's condition was not caused by a folic acid deficiency, but she supports the new measures.

"I think that it doesn't hurt anybody to have the folate put into the flour," she said. "It gives people access to folic acid at the point of purchasing something as minor as flour or bread.

"I think it could potentially have the longer term impact on hopefully reducing neural tube defects because you want children to be born without them if you can."

It is recommended that women trying for a baby should take folic acid supplements for about three months before getting pregnant and for at least three months after falling pregnant.

However, fortifying bread and flour will give women a higher baseline intake of folic acid if pregnancy is unplanned.

The move could prevent about 200 cases of neural tube defects every year, according to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), as well as saving the NHS £20m over 10 years.

Public health minister Andrew Gwynne said: “These measures are a simple and effective intervention to improve health outcomes in babies, giving them the best start in life.”

In the UK, flour is already fortified with calcium carbonate, iron, nicotinic acid or nicotinamide, and thiamine, also known as vitamin B1.

England’s chief medical officer Prof Sir Chris Whitty welcomed the plans to add folic acid.

He said: “The fortification of flour is a simple and effective way to help to reduce cases of neural tube defects, although it is important that women who are pregnant or intending to become pregnant continue to take folic acid supplements before and during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.”

The announcement has raised concerns with some groups including the Real Bread Campaign, which is organised by the food and farming charity Sustain.

Chris Young, from the Real Bread Campaign, said: “We believe that the so-called fortification of flour in general is, effectively, involuntary mass medication of a nation and a sticking plaster approach to improving the nutritional standards of a national diet.”

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