By Dan Satherley
The Government's decision not to force bakers to fortify bread with folic acid has divided opinions – the food industry on one side, medical professionals on the other.
Yesterday Food Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson announced the voluntary fortification regime was here to stay.
“In making my decision in favour of voluntary fortification, I read all the submissions and the clear message is that people want choice,” says Ms Wilkinson.
Decreased folate levels in mothers-to-be can cause neural-tube defects such as spina bifida. In 2007 the Labour government announced that from 2009, fortification of bread would be mandatory, but the National government reversed that before it could be put into practise.
Prime Minister John Key said he was "not convinced" of the health benefits.
The decision has been slammed by the NZ Organisation for Rare Disorders, which says the decision will condemn 20 babies a year to either serious disability or death.
"The minister’s decision is a missed opportunity to take decisive action on this important public health issue and mandate a simple and effective way of reducing risk for women and their babies," says director John Forman.
He also took aim at the industry's voluntary fortification scheme, saying they have fallen well short of the Government's 50 percent target of all packaged breads being fortified with folic acid.
"Despite overwhelming scientific evidence that fortification of a staple food with folic acid significantly reduces the risk of giving birth to babies with NTDs… [the] industry has only introduced fortification in 12.5 percent of their products and has failed to deliver a promised public awareness campaign," says Mr Forman.
"Their commitment has been lacking and I have little faith that they will raise their game now."
Spina Bifida NZ says neural tube defects affect around 80 pregnancies a year – 47 of which are terminated and 14 stillborn.
"If two buses crashed and 61 children's lives were tragically cut short, as a country we would honour their lives with a national day of mourning," the organisation said in a release.
"The real tragedy is that these little lives are being lost quietly, out of public (but not private) view, and are seen as disposable."
But Baking Industry Association of NZ president Brendan Williams called it a "victory for common-sense", and the NZ Food & Grocery council says the Government's decision was "the right one".
"It’s the right thing to do, based on the current science, which is increasingly not clear," says CEO Katherine Rich .
"And as long as that is the case, it doesn't make sense to mandate fortification and effectively expose every man, woman, and child by artificially raising levels of folic acid in an attempt to reach a small number of women."
Ms Rich says there is evidence that folate levels in Kiwi women are already "as good if not better" than in the US, where fortification is mandatory.
Since beginning mandatory fortification in the late 1990s, there has been a significant decline in childhood brain and kidney tumours in the US.
"There is a potential for harm to small subsets of the population from consuming too much folic acid," says Ms Rich, adding that the rate of neural tube defects in New Zealand "probably at a floor level".
But Dr Andrew Marshall, clinical leader of paediatrics at Wellington Hospital told 3 News in May that folic acid fortification posed no risk to the public.
"The folate that we're proposing to put into bread is actually folate that should be in our diet, and if our diets were more natural and less processed it would be there," he said.
Labour's food safety spokesperson Damien O'Connor said Ms Wilkinson wasn't taking the risk posed by inadequate folate levels seriously.
"Much of the food we eat contains ingredients to preserve, add taste or improve safety - this is no different," says Mr O'Connor.
"Inadequate vitamin B9 for pregnant mothers creates a huge risk and it is one the minister should have taken seriously."
A list of what breads are currently fortified with folic acid is available on the Baking Industry Association of NZ website.
3 News
source: newshub archive
