Food Standards Agency
Tuesday 14 October 2008
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On 17 May 2007, the Food Standards Agency Board agreed unanimously that 'mandatory fortification' with folic acid should be introduced, alongside controls on voluntary fortification and advice on the use of supplements.
Mandatory fortification means that it would be compulsory to add folic acid to either bread or flour. The purpose of mandatory fortification with folic acid is to reduce the number of neural tube defects. The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) estimated that there are between 700 and 900 pregnancies affected by neural tube defects each year.
The Board’s decision on this issue was made after an extensive and scientifically robust process. This included analysis and advice from SACN, which is an independent committee of scientific experts that advises the Government. All the scientific evidence considered by SACN is detailed in its report, Folate and Disease Prevention (December 2006) – see the link at the bottom of the page.
In reaching its decision the Board also considered: the risks and benefits to both specific groups of the population as well as the whole population; the public consultation on a range of options; consumer research on the options; the ethics of adding folic acid to a food; and the impact that mandatory fortification has had in other countries. The Board paper sets out clearly all of the arguments and the results of consultations with experts, ethical advisers, business sectors and consumer groups. The paper is available from the link at the bottom of the page.
The consumer research, ethics paper, literature review and consultation summary have been published and links to these can also be found below.
Before making its final recommendation on mandatory folic acid fortification, SACN is waiting to review the results of a number of ongoing trials looking at the effect of folic acid on the risk of some types of cancer. These are due to be completed at the end of 2008. SACN's recommendations will then be considered by UK Health Departments early in 2009. If mandatory fortification is approved, the FSA will produce a plan of how it can be implemented, including details of which types of bread or flour would be fortified and how the added folic acid would be labelled.
Download pdf
(pdf 392KB) Folic acid: influencing low-income groups AppendicesDownload pdf
(pdf 651KB) FSA 07/05/04 - Options for improving folate intakes of women of reproductive age and preventing neural tube defects Read the Board paperDownload pdf
(pdf 532KB) Health and lifestyle in pregnancy - folic acid - qualitative research final reportDownload pdf
(pdf 558KB) The ethical implications of options for improving the folate intake of women of reproductive age Report by the Institute for Science and Society University of Nottingham April 2007Download pdf
(pdf 214KB)This consultation, which ran from December 2006 to March 2007, sought comments on options for increasing the folate intakes of young women to reduce the number of pregnancies affected by a neural tube defect (NTD). The information submitted is being used to help inform Agency advice to Health Ministers on folate and NTDs.
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