Folic Acid

Baroness Jolly Excerpts

Wednesday 9th January 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Manzoor]

My noble friend highlights our problem and it is therefore important to have the impact assessment. At the moment, additives are only put into white flour, as things are removed through the milling process. Therefore, with folic acid increasingly put into breakfast cereals and a large quantity of other products, we need to look at the upper tolerance level before decisions can be made on moving forward.

[Baroness Jolly (LD)]

The Bread and Flour Regulations currently apply only to wheat flour, which contains gluten and is therefore unsuitable for people with coeliac disease. In the consultation, will the Government consider extending the regulations to apply to gluten-free breads, to ensure that those people have equivalent access to fortified breads?

[Baroness Manzoor]

That is an important point and we need to ensure that the consultation captures as wide a group of people as possible. If we move into mandatory fortification of flour, it should be done on a basis consistent with addressing all issues, including that.