More folic acid in bread could save 800 babies from birth defects like spina bifida

Four times as many babies could be saved from being aborted or born with diseases like spina bifida if the Government added sufficient levels of folic acid to food, experts have said.

Flour will soon be fortified with folic acid to help prevent dangerous spinal conditions in babies, but doctors say current recommended levels will be too low to be effective.

About 1,000 babies are born each year in the UK with neural tube defects, such as spina bifida and anencephaly.

The Government is proposing to add 0.25g of folic acid to each 100g of flour to prevent 200 cases - 20 per cent - a year.

However experts are calling for the level to be increased to 1g per 100g, which would prevent 800 birth defects - or 80 per cent of cases.

‘Easy way to prevent 800 disasters’

Dame Lesley Regan, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Imperial College, said: “I am one of the people who has to pick up the pieces when a woman is found to be carrying a baby with a neural tube defect.

“This is such an easy way to prevent 800 disasters a year in this country. Let’s do it at the right dose, because it makes no sense to do something half-heartedly.”

Most parents whose children are diagnosed with neural tube defects choose abortion, but children born with spina bifida typically face multiple surgical operations and many are paraplegic and incontinent for all their life.

Since the early 90s it has been proven the supplementation with folic acid could stop more than 80 per cent of cases. But two thirds of women do not take the supplement when trying for a baby and many do not even realise they are pregnant at the time that supplements would be effective.

The government is adopting a cautious approach to fortification over fears that folic acid supplementation could mask symptoms of a dangerous vitamin B12 deficiency, which stops the body producing healthy red blood cells.

B12 deficiency could be missed

Often the first signs of a B12 deficiency is anaemia, but folic acid would prevent that condition meaning that the deficiency which can cause neurological problems, could be missed.

However experts said the concern was unwarranted, and point out that missed diagnoses have never been a problem in the 80 countries that have already supplemented food with folic acid.

Peter Rothwell, Professor of Neurology at the University of Oxford, said: “The idea that you might mask anaemia and that might cause neurological damage just doesn’t fit with the evidence or modern practice.

“I think the neurological concerns are overblown. It’s important to be aware of unintended adverse consequences but the ones that we are able to quantify really seem to be very small indeed when faced with such clear cut benefits.”

In September, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs launched a UK-wide consultation on the amount of folic acid which should be added to flour and is expected to make an announcement on final levels in the coming months.