Countries split over bread additive

Annette King

New Zealand and Australia have split over plans to add folic acid to bread or flour to prevent birth defects.

Food ministers from the New Zealand and Australian Governments on Wednesday deferred their decision on the matter for up to six months to consider "technical" issues.

These were to do with "implementation of the standard, and compliance issues", the transtasman Food Regulation Ministerial Council said in a statement after its meeting.

NZ Food Safety Minister Annette King's office would not elaborate yesterday on the reasons for deferring a decision on the proposal from Food Standards Australia New Zealand.

Australian states and territories are objecting to a late change to the proposal - to satisfy New Zealand - that would require bread, rather than all flour, to be the "vehicle" of folic acid fortification.

The original plan, stipulating flour, would put the synthetic vitamin in all wheat-flour products such as biscuits and even home-made bread.

The New Zealand Government wanted to retain greater consumer choice by opting for bread, but bakers continue to be strongly opposed to the two options.

The Australians fear that the change requiring fortification of the bread rather than the flour would be much harder to audit because of the far greater number of bakers than flour millers.

It is understood that the possibility of having separate standards for Australia and New Zealand will now be investigated as a way of resolving the difference.

The final assessment report by the food standards agency that went to the ministers' meeting estimates that implementing its fortification proposal would reduce the number of pregnancies in New Zealand affected by spina bifida and other neural-tube defects each year to around 60 from the present 70-75.

Women would still be encouraged to take folic acid tablets around the time of becoming pregnant as the fortification of bread and a normal diet would still not supply enough folic acid or its natural equivalent folate.

The Greens last night welcomed the ministerial delay.

Safe food spokeswoman Sue Kedgley interpreted it as the council having "listened to the advice of the Green Party, the baking industry and organic producers and consumers".

She noted that in a New Zealand survey 84 per cent of respondents had said they did not want mandatory fortification.

"Compulsory fortification is a fairly extreme response to the problem of neural-tube defects and must not be rushed into," she said.

The National Party last week called for the fortification of bread to be delayed until more was known about its health effects.