AUCKLAND, New Zealand—After much heated debate, New Zealand’s Food & Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson has agreed to put the mandatory fortification of New Zealand bread with folic acid into the public arena.
The National Government has asked for public submissions which could defer folic acid fortification for another three years.
Babies with neural tube defects (NTDs), the most common of which is spina bifida, are believed to be caused by low levels of folate in pregnant women.
In 2001 the former Labour Government reached a cross party consensus to make the additive mandatory in bread. The Green Party obtained a concession exempting organic and non-leavened bread.
Following a joint Food Standards agreement with Australia in 2007, folic acid was to be added to New Zealand bread in September this year.
But opposition against the regulation has mounted as the date for mandatory treatment of bread with folic acid approached.
Laurie Powell, President of the New Zealand Bakers Association believes New Zealanders appreciate having the right to choose what they consume in their bread.
“We don’t see bread as a vehicle for mass medication of the population to try and provide some sort of questionable benefit for about five percent of the population,” he said.
The industry already has a limited range of folic acid fortified bread that targets women of childbearing age and is looking at extending the range.
Epidemiologists and the medical fraternity have been “struck dumb” by the decision taken last week, said Mr Lyall Thurston, spokesperson for the Coalition of Parents of Children with Spina Bifida.
Fifty-seven countries already have mandatory folic acid fortification, including the United States, Canada and Chile.
We have been campaigning for 20 years and working in conjuction with the Ministry of Health, Food and Safety and across the board with all political parties.
Folic acid fortification is also endorsed by the World Health Organisation and many of New Zealand’s health, women and child-related organisations.
The anti-fortification lobby had led a “most disgusting campaign with distortions and half-truths,” said Mr Thurston.
“Bakers says that women need to eat at least 11 slices of bread a day to make a difference to the health of the children. That inferred that women live on bread alone.”
But women also eat spinach, broccoli and silverbeet which contain folic acid, said Mr Thurston.
The term “mass medication” is objectionable, he says. ”All we have said to the milling and baking industry is, please put back into the flour what you took out.”
Last year, 14 babies were born with NTDs in New Zealand. Specialists believe this number could be quadrupled as many NTDs are aborted, says the Coalition of Parents of Children with Spina Bifida. Besides this, many NTD pregnancies end in miscarriage.
“We will effectively abort the equivalent of a classroom of children each year for the next three years,” said Mr Thurston, if the legislation is deferred.
The scaremongering could deter women from taking folic acid which may lead to an increase in babies with congenital defects, says Mr Thurston.
Elaine Rush, Professor of Nutrition at Auckland University of Technology says folic acid will mask the signs of vitamin B12 deficiencies. Vitamin B12 is also important in the prevention of NTDs.
Those at risk are elderly vegetarians and people who cannot afford to buy meat or dairy products, rich sources of vitamin B12, in a recession, she told Science Media Centre.
“In isolation, the addition of [a] single nutrient to a food supply may cause other unintended effects and the issue of fortification does need thinking through carefully so that all the population groups in New Zealand benefit.”
Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate, a B vitamin.
The recommended daily intake for an adult is 400 micrograms of folate from food each day, according to the NZ Food Safety Authority. Adults get about 250 micrograms of folate from food each day, well below the recommended amount.
The National Government has asked for public submissions which could defer folic acid fortification for another three years.
Babies with neural tube defects (NTDs), the most common of which is spina bifida, are believed to be caused by low levels of folate in pregnant women.
In 2001 the former Labour Government reached a cross party consensus to make the additive mandatory in bread. The Green Party obtained a concession exempting organic and non-leavened bread.
Following a joint Food Standards agreement with Australia in 2007, folic acid was to be added to New Zealand bread in September this year.
But opposition against the regulation has mounted as the date for mandatory treatment of bread with folic acid approached.
Laurie Powell, President of the New Zealand Bakers Association believes New Zealanders appreciate having the right to choose what they consume in their bread.
“We don’t see bread as a vehicle for mass medication of the population to try and provide some sort of questionable benefit for about five percent of the population,” he said.
The industry already has a limited range of folic acid fortified bread that targets women of childbearing age and is looking at extending the range.
Epidemiologists and the medical fraternity have been “struck dumb” by the decision taken last week, said Mr Lyall Thurston, spokesperson for the Coalition of Parents of Children with Spina Bifida.
Fifty-seven countries already have mandatory folic acid fortification, including the United States, Canada and Chile.
We have been campaigning for 20 years and working in conjuction with the Ministry of Health, Food and Safety and across the board with all political parties.
Folic acid fortification is also endorsed by the World Health Organisation and many of New Zealand’s health, women and child-related organisations.
The anti-fortification lobby had led a “most disgusting campaign with distortions and half-truths,” said Mr Thurston.
“Bakers says that women need to eat at least 11 slices of bread a day to make a difference to the health of the children. That inferred that women live on bread alone.”
But women also eat spinach, broccoli and silverbeet which contain folic acid, said Mr Thurston.
The term “mass medication” is objectionable, he says. ”All we have said to the milling and baking industry is, please put back into the flour what you took out.”
Last year, 14 babies were born with NTDs in New Zealand. Specialists believe this number could be quadrupled as many NTDs are aborted, says the Coalition of Parents of Children with Spina Bifida. Besides this, many NTD pregnancies end in miscarriage.
“We will effectively abort the equivalent of a classroom of children each year for the next three years,” said Mr Thurston, if the legislation is deferred.
The scaremongering could deter women from taking folic acid which may lead to an increase in babies with congenital defects, says Mr Thurston.
Elaine Rush, Professor of Nutrition at Auckland University of Technology says folic acid will mask the signs of vitamin B12 deficiencies. Vitamin B12 is also important in the prevention of NTDs.
Those at risk are elderly vegetarians and people who cannot afford to buy meat or dairy products, rich sources of vitamin B12, in a recession, she told Science Media Centre.
“In isolation, the addition of [a] single nutrient to a food supply may cause other unintended effects and the issue of fortification does need thinking through carefully so that all the population groups in New Zealand benefit.”
Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate, a B vitamin.
The recommended daily intake for an adult is 400 micrograms of folate from food each day, according to the NZ Food Safety Authority. Adults get about 250 micrograms of folate from food each day, well below the recommended amount.
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