Folic acid 'should be pumped into RICE as well as bread', experts say trends now

Folic acid should be added to rice as well as flour to prevent hundreds of cases of 'tragic' birth defects every year, experts have said today.

Ministers have already announced the nutrient will be baked into white and brown bread.

Officials estimate that, annually, it will stop 200 babies being born with neural tube defects, which are usually caused by a folic acid deficiency and can lead to life-long disability. 

But leading researchers have now criticised the Government's 'half-hearted' policy.

Up to 800 cases could be avoided every year if the nutrient was also added to rice and doses were quadrupled, they claimed. 

Folic acid, a synthetic version of the vitamin folate (B9), is found naturally in broccoli, peas and brown rice. 

The NHS advises that women take 400 micrograms of folic acid daily while trying to conceive and for the first three months of pregnancy.

But it can be difficult to get from diet alone. To get the recommended amount each day, a woman would need to eat at least four servings of foods high in folic acid, such broccoli, kale and spinach or eight portions of foods with medium levels, such as kidney beans, courgette or oranges.

A deficiency before or during pregnancy can lead to defects in a growing baby's neural tube, which becomes their brain, spinal cord and central nervous system. 

Defects can lead to life-long disabilities, such as spina bifida, when a baby's spine does not develop properly in the womb. It can lead to paralysis. 

Others, like anencephaly — when a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull — can be fatal.

Such defects, spotted through routine screening, occur within the first month of pregnancy, when the neural tube is completely formed. 

Eight in 10 women choose to have an abortion after it is detected.

But experts say the current NHS advice doesn't work, as half of pregnancies in Britain are not planned and only one in three pregnant women take the supplement.

British medical bosses first ruled that it should be mandatory for flour to be fortified with folic acid in 2006.

But it wasn't until September 2021 that the Government revealed plans to add folic acid to non-wholemeal wheat flour in a bid to reduce cases of neural tube defects.

The policy has been rolled out in around 80 other countries, including the US, Australia and New Zealand.

Those nations were prompted by a landmark 1991 study, which showed that regularly consuming sufficient levels of folic acid before pregnancy reduced cases of neural tube defects by 80 per cent.

Ministers are thought to have stalled because they feared being accused of 'mass medication' and acting like a 'nanny state'. 

They are still considering what level to mandate but have proposed 0.25mg of folic acid per 100g of non-wholemeal wheat flour.

However, experts today warned the approach is 'too narrow'.

They said the plans would only cut neural tube defect cases by 20 per cent per year — meaning approximately 200 fewer babies are born with the condition.