Major brands and millers have agreed to fortify wheat flour with iron, folic acid and vitamin B12 under India’s drive to boost nutrition levels through a mass fortification programme.
Brazil’s national health surveillance agency ANVISA has opened a public consultation over plans to revamp a 15-year old regulation that requires food companies to enrich wheat and maize flour with iron and folic acid.
Inaugural meeting of micronutrients and health group
A UK member of parliament (MP) will lobby for folic acid strategies including supplementation and/or fortification of flour following the inaugural meeting of a parliamentary group on micronutrients and health.
The re-emergence of the Victorian-era condition rickets in the UK has put the spotlight back on vitamin D intakes, and a recent advisory committee report will likely spur debate on the need for mandatory fortification.
Low prenatal folate levels may be associated with a smaller total brain volume and poorer language and visuo-spatial performance in children at six to eight years, research suggests.
If iron flour fortification is to work sources and levels approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) are required and actual consumption must be considered, says food fortification expert.
Five countries recommend folate and folic acid consumption around conception above and beyond World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, while five others dismiss supplementation as unnecessary, report finds.
The health value of grains must be quantified with solid science to create a tool industry can use against widespread bread bashing, says the CEO of the American Bakers Association (ABA).
A newly approved EU health claim to say folic acid supplements reduce the risk of infant neural tube defects will bring home the nutrient’s importance to women, say a team of campaigners and trade groups behind the claim.
New findings that the body is less efficient at metabolising folic acid than natural folates could inform policy-making decisions as the UK government considers mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid.
The UK government will finalize its decision on mandatory folic acid fortification of white flour next year following blood folate tests, says the Department of Health (DoH).
The government at Westminster is being urged to press ahead with mandatory fortification of bread and flour with folic acid across the UK in a bid to reduce neural tube defects in foetuses.
Folic acid is backed to deliver important health benefits in the scientific literature and by regulators – but is over-consumption a real problem? asks Robert Verkerk, PhD, the founder, executive and scientific director of the Alliance for Natural Health...
Voluntary folic acid fortification of bread is sufficient but maximum limits should be set and the market carefully monitored, a public health expert says.
Europe’s head science agency has joined other international authorities in backing B vitamin folate’s ability to reduce neural tube defects (NTDs) like spina bifida and hydrocephalus in early-stage foetuses.
The European Union must embrace a mandatory folic acid flour fortification program given the prevalence of neural tube defects (NTDs) in newborns across the region, say researchers.
Food fortification with neural tube defect (NTD)-reducing folic acid is mandatory in 75 nations, but concerns over cancer and other health issues mean Europe lags far behind – a situation that needs to change and quickly, says DSM thinktank, sightandlife.
Mandatory flour fortification across most of francaphone Africa is fuelling business opportunities for enrichment specialists, but education at ground-level will be crucial to the sector’s future, says Mühlenchemie.
New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has called for submissions on its latest consultation paper set to decide between mandatory implementation of folic acid fortification or a continued voluntary policy.
Turkemistan, the first former Soviet Union country to make fortification of the flour supply with iodine and folic acid mandatory 15 years ago, is reporting the success of the programme, with low rates of neural tube defects (NTDs) common to folic acid...
Increased intakes of folate following the introduction of fortification in the US was associated with a reduction in the incidence of colorectal cancer, says a new analysis.
Consuming folic acid from supplements or fortified grain products is unlikely to exacerbate problems associated with low vitamin B12 levels, says a new study.
Mark Fairweather, chief executive of Allied Bakeries, has called on retailers to accept inevitable bread price rises due to rising input costs, and specifically pressure arising from global speculation on wheat.
Over 85 per cent of neural tube defects cases caused by folate deficiency in Germany could be prevented by adopting mandatory fortification, according to a review which argues in favour of food fortification.
New Zealand opposition party members are calling on the government to fortify the country’s flour supply and bread output with folic acid, following reports of the success of a similar program across the Tasman Sea in Australia.
A Medical Journal of Australia study has found blood folate levels have increased in the Australian population after mandatory folic acid fortification of bread products was introduced in September, 2009.
Daily doses of folic acid as low as 0.2 milligrams are sufficient to lower homocysteine levels – an amino acid linked to increased risks of heart disease and dementia, says a new study.
Heat degradation of folic acid during baking is between 21.9 per cent and 32.1 per cent with bread type being an influencing factor, claims a new Irish study aiming to quantify the reduction of the nutrient during the production process on a pilot scale.
Formulating snack bars with micro-sized flakes of lentils may boost the folate content of the finished product by 10 per cent, says a new study from Canada.
A new study demonstrates that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has scored a policy success through getting the dosage for folic acid fortification of flour right in the US, and any excessive intake is people is due to supplement usage, according...
Enforced consumption of folic acid introduces adverse health risks to a wider population and flour millers and bakers may be legally liable for health claims resulting from mandatory folic acid fortification, claims one of the leaders of the Australian...
Folic acid supplements during pregnancy may not only reduce the risk of birth defects but also protect the children from congenital heart defects, says a new study from the Netherlands.
Supplements of folic acid may reduce the recurrence of colorectal cancer in people with low levels of the nutrient, but not people who already have adequate amounts, says a new study from Harvard.
Less than five percent of Americans are exceeding safe limits of folic acid despite intakes from a multitude of sources, both enriched and natural, says a new study.
Recommendations to increase folic acid intakes during the early stages of pregnancy may reduce mental and emotional health problems in children, says a new study.
Look at the globe and you’d be hard pressed to find two countries further apart than Ireland and New Zealand. But they stand side-by-side on the folic acid fortification issue – it is not needed.
Irish researchers have backed an earlier government working group finding that there is probably no need to mandatorily fortify parts of the Irish food supply with folic acid, as voluntary measures by food players have already done the job.
Concerns over a possible role of folic acid in development of colon cancer are continuing, as results of a rat study suggest the vitamin may promote tumour formation.
Increased intakes of folic acid by mandatory fortification of grain products to reduce neural tube defects may also reduce a baby’s risk of severe congenital heart defects, says a new study.
A recent law from Brussels has thrown up new opportunities for different loaf sizes for UK bakers, with 2009 set to witness an escalation in new product development related to the weight of pre-packaged breads.
Researchers at Brigham University have completed a project to fortify tortillas with vitamins and minerals, in an effort to help improve the dietary deficiencies of Mexicans.
Carefully selecting the yeast strain for bakery could result in natural biofortication of the product with folate, and remove the need to add synthetic folic acid, suggests a new study.
![“[T]here is an urgent need for many countries (including the UK) to update antiquated national flour fortification legislation to conform to the more recent WHO recommendations on Fe compounds and fortification levels.”](/var/wrbm_gb_food_pharma/storage/images/_aliases/news_teaser_medium/7/2/3/2/522327-1-eng-GB/Antiquated-national-flour-fortification-laws-must-be-updated-to-meet-WHO-recommendations-Researcher.jpg)
