Folic acid will be put in bread-making flour to prevent devastating birth defects that can result in death or lifelong disability.
Fortifying bread and other food staples with folic acid has significantly reduced birth defects of the brain, spine, or spinal cord in other countries including the United States, Canada and Australia.
The move, to be announced today, comes after an investigation by The New Zealand Herald exposed stories of parents who have been pushing for years for New Zealand to match other countries by fortifying bread.
“This B vitamin is safe and essential for health, particularly for development of babies early in pregnancy.
"Folate is naturally present in food. Folic acid fortification restores what is lost during processing such as flour milling.
“A little over half of pregnancies in New Zealand are unplanned, so it’s not practical for all women to take a folic acid supplement one month before they conceive.”
The health measure is a breakthrough for New Zealand’s medical and scientific communities and patient advocates, who were disappointed after plans to add folic acid to bread from 2009 were upended by industry opposition claiming possible risks from “mass medication”.
Under the policy, fortification of bread-making flour will happen from mid to late 2023.
Organic and non-wheat flour will be exempt to give consumers choice, the Government said.
The change is expected to prevent 162 to 240 neural tube defects over 30 years, and save many millions of dollars over the same period in health, education and productivity costs.
Flour millers will get about $1.6million to pay for necessary equipment.
Today’s announcement follows an investigation by The New Zealand Herald that revealed the benefit could be much greater, because official estimates did not count miscarriages earlier in pregnancy.
The College of Public Health Medicine said as many as 200 such miscarriages a year could be prevented, something it called an “iceberg of heartbreak”.
Getting enough folate, a natural B vitamin found in foods such as leafy green vegetables, before and in early pregnancy can considerably reduce the risk of such neural tube defects, the most common of which is spina bifida.
It is difficult to get enough from diet alone, and women are advised to take folic acid tablets.
Many do not, and more than half of pregnancies are not planned — a proportion that rises for young mothers (83%), Maori (75%) and Pacific New Zealanders (71%).
When those women realise they are pregnant it is often too late — the neural tube closes 15 to 28 days after conception.
For this reason, New Zealand and Australia agreed to mandatory fortification of bread from 2009, but the new National government backed out after an opposition campaign by bakers and the Food & Grocery Council, an industry lobby group , warning of unknown effects and labelled the initiative an example of the “nanny state”.
Australia went ahead, and the rate of neural tube defects dropped by another 14% overall, and by 74% for indigenous women and 55% for teenage mothers.
New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries estimates up to 171 pregnancies affected by a neural tube defect could have been prevented in the decade after 2009, had mandatory fortification of bread gone ahead.
More than half of such pregnancies are terminated or result in stillbirths.
The Food and Grocery Council, representing food manufacturers, wants to keep the voluntary system while consideration was given to what it said was emerging evidence of possible health risks.
Those in favour of mandatory fortification include the Ministry of Health, Auckland Regional Public Health Service, DHBs, Plunket, the Medical Association, the College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Paediatric Society, College of Physicians, Nurses Organisation, College of Midwives, Dieticians NZ, Consumer NZ, scientists, health academics and workers, including doctors and midwives.
The policy will not require legislative change.
National confirmed it remained opposed ahead of the last election, citing the desire to protect consumer choice.
- The New Zealand Herald
