Australia: Nutritional Supplements Added to Bread

Canberra / AU. (div) Australia will introduce changes to its bread over the coming months in a bid to address two long-standing nutritional deficiencies associated with birth defects, several media in Down Under reported. From mid-September, it will be illegal for bakers to sell bread in Australia that does not contain an added, but minuscule dose of the vitamin folic acid. Flour millers must add the vitamin at the stage before it is sent to the nation´s bakeries and bread manufacturers. Some weeks later, in early October another Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) edict will come into force requiring all bread to contain iodized rather than ordinary salt.

«We have spent ten years trying to look at other methods of getting more folic acid in the diet», FSANZ spokeswoman Lydia Buchtmann said. Folic acid or folate is a driver of rapid cell division in the body and women who do not have enough of it face a heightened risk of developmental problems in their unborn child, including spina bifida. Australia´s move to fortify its bread with the folic acid is expected to stop almost 50 children from developing these disabilities every year.

The change is the result of a collective agreement of state health ministers, and it brings Australia into line with other western countries including the United States and Canada. The substitution of iodized salt is aimed to target iodine deficiency, which is the single most common cause of preventable mental retardation and brain damage in the world.