What is the science behind the government plans?
The addition of synthetic folic acid to all white and brown flour from 13 December 2026 became law via SI2024/1162 as an amendment to the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998. As a Statutory Instrument, there was no parliamentary debate. There was no full scientific Impact Assessment; just a de minimis financial assessment by DEFRA and limited DHSC input. The stated aim is to increase blood folate levels in pregnant women in order to reduce the risk of neural tube defects (NTDs). The Government estimates a reduction of about 200 Neural Tube Defect (NTD)-affected pregnancies annually, approximately 20% of UK cases. Most of these would have ended in a termination of pregnancy or a neonatal death but a small number of births of children with spina bifida may be avoided.
No proper assessment of the harms of folic acid have been carried out, yet it is proposed to give it to every man, woman and child in this country indefinitely, rather than just giving supplements for a few months to those women wishing to take them. Most notably there are several groups of people whom the NHS currently advises to avoid folic acid medication. This includes patients with cancer, Vitamin B12 deficiency, cardiac stent proceedures and haemodyalysis. But is not at all clear how these people will avoid folic acid once it is in all flour. Analysis of long term outcomes from 10 randomised trials has shown a worrying 23% increase in cancers, 24% for prostate cancer.
A parliamentary petition has been set up here which is half way to getting a debate.
A letter has been sent to the minister last month and a very inadequate response received, here.
Further articles on Folic acid:
Six Saved Babies. What About the Seventy Who Died? 23/03/26
What you need to know about Folic Acid Part One: The Deficiency That Wasn’t 11/06/2026
What you need to know about Folic Acid Part Two: How 100 microgram Became 400 11/06/2026
What you need to know about Folic Acid Part Three: Folic Acid Is Not Folate 11/06/2026
Support debate on folic acid in flour Please help force a parliamentary debate on folic acid 18/06/2026
Why can’t Public Health U-turn? When experts recommended removal of fortifications from flour – nothing happened 29/06/2026
Some people should avoid folic acid but how? Government response to folic acid petition 30/06/2026
The NHS’s folic acid rewrite What an FOI revealed 02/07/2026
Reality behind the claim folic acid could “save 200 babies” 05/07/2026
Australia added folic acid to flour in 2009 then went silent about the results The country most often cited as proof that mandatory folic acid fortification works quietly stopped collecting the data needed to prove it. 19/07/26
Folic acid and Cancer: the safety studies do not show what is claimed Analysis based on dosage and long follow up all points one way 19/07/26
Government reimagines dead babies as a benefit of folic acid exposure When a claim becomes unfalsifiable it is no longer scientific 22/07/26
Finding the missing flour: The government’s modelling of what flour we eat has a massive error 27/07/26
Hunting for evidence of folate deficiency as a cause of neural tube defects The folate-deficient women nobody could find 28/07/26
How does folate fare during a famine? What is the science behind the government plans? 28/07/26
Letter re Folic acid to Secretary of State & a woeful reply from DHSC’s Communications Officer 28/07/26
