How the food industry buried the folic acid plan

Food Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson. Photo / Martin Sykes

Food Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson told the Herald she was not aware the new rule was coming into force in September until she was advised by bakers around three months ago.

This is despite the Food Safety Authority devoting nearly two pages of its 74-page briefing to her in November to the plans for mandatory fortification of most bread with folic acid and iodised salt. It noted one of the grounds of opposition to food fortification was the "perceived removal of choice" from consumers.

In at least 60 pregnancies a year, the fetus has a neural tube defect, such as spina bifida, and typically more than half are aborted or result in stillbirths. Folic acid fortification of bread is expected to reduce the number of affected pregnancies by four to 14. But the proposed level of fortification is only a safety net: it is not set high enough to be sure of providing all the folic acid women need before and during early pregnancy. They will still need to take folic acid supplements.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand, on whose advice the last Government proceeded with mandatory folic acid fortification, admits to some uncertainties about the potential health effects of increasing the whole population's folic acid intake, but says the scheme is safe.

Opponents latched on to this, especially the mention of uncertainty about cancer rates.

Murray Skeaff, professor of human nutrition at Otago University, tried to calm the debate by reporting on a conference he had attended in the Czech Republic in June. Results were presented of a large study looking at various folic acid trials.

He said it showed there was no change in cancer risk, up or down, for those who took folic acid and other B vitamins.

But once a cancer scare is seeded, it is hard to contain.

Canberra-based Food Standards says there had been no similar outcry in Australia over its version of the transtasman rule, which requires millers to add folic acid to the wheat flour used in most bread.

The New Zealand Government wants to defer mandatory fortification until 2012 and this week issued a public discussion document which floats that option, along with that of proceeding with the original September start, and pulling out of the rule altogether.

In the House, Wilkinson praised Ireland's voluntary fortification regime, credited with increasing the Irish intake of folic acid by 30 per cent, and reiterated her misgivings about a mandatory system.

"I support New Zealanders being able to choose whether their bread has folic acid."