A national committee will today recommend the mandatory fortification of most breads with folic acid. The committee, chaired by the health sector management consultant Maureen Lynott, has been examining for some time whether foods should be fortified with folic acid in an attempt to reduce the number of children born with neural tube defects such as spina bifida.
The Republic has one of the highest rates of neural tube defects in Europe. Approximately 1 to 1.5 in every 1,000 births are affected.
The National Committee on Folic Acid Food Fortification undertook a nationwide public consultation campaign last year to help identify the most effective public health strategy to increase the intake of folic acid among Irish women of childbearing age.
Folic acid is a B vitamin and it has been proven that taking it for four weeks before and 12 weeks after a woman conceives can help reduce the risk of her having a child with a neural tube defect.
However, because close to half of all pregnancies in the Republic are unplanned, many women are not taking folic acid before conceiving.
Some cereals are already fortified with the supplement, while certain foods such as green leafy vegetables are also high in folic acid. However, women of childbearing age only get an average of 30 micrograms of folic acid every day in their diet.
The optimal level to help reduce the risk of neural tube defects is 400 micrograms per day.
As a result there has been much discussion about whether mandatory fortification of foods with folic acid might be the best solution.
This approach has already been recommended by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, as well as a number of leading obstetricians.
In 1996, the USA and Canada introduced mandatory fortification of all flour with folic acid. This has succeeded in reducing the number of neural tube defect births. In Newfoundland for example, a reduction of 78 per cent in such births has been reported.
A delegation from the national committee looking at whether the Republic should follow suit went to the US and Canada to gain first hand information on their mandatory fortification schemes.
Afterwards, the committee looked at three policy options. These included having a voluntary fortification programme, whereby flour millers/bakers would add a specific level of folic acid to bread. These breads would carry a special logo and label to enable consumers to choose bread with or without added folic acid.
They also looked at the idea of a mandatory fortification programme of some breadmaking flour or all flour, or continuing with current practice, whereby a limited range of foods are voluntarily fortified with folic acid.
The committee will present a report with its recommendations to Minister for Health Mary Harney at Government buildings this morning.
The mandatory fortification of flour for bread making will require a change in legislation.
During the course of its work, the committee received a detailed submission from the industry and in principle, it was in favour of mandatory fortification, subject to several industry issues such as cost being met.