Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Food Safety Act 1990, what is the legal basis for the adding of folic acid to non-wholewheat flour as a public health measure.

The Bread and Flour (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2024 made provisions for the mandatory fortification of non-wholemeal wheat flour with folic acid, following a final decision to proceed with this long-standing proposal taken by the previous government in January 2024, when the Rt Hon Member was the Minister for Common Sense.

These provisions were made using powers in sections 6(4), 16(1)(a) and (e), 18(1)(c), 26(1)(a) and (3) and 48(1) of the Food Safety Act 1990. In particular, section 16(1)(a) includes provisions for “requiring, prohibiting or regulating the presence in food or food sources of any specified substance, or any substance of any specified class, and generally for regulating the composition of food.”