Ireland aiming to boost public awareness of folic acid

Ireland has one of the highest rates of neural tube defects in Europe - approximately 1-1.5 per 1,000 births - and although it has advised women planning to have babies to take folic acid supplements since 1993, these campaigns have had little success.

A recently created national committee on folic acid food fortification published a range of new policy options in March that would tackle this high incidence, and since then the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has been educating the public on the importance of the vitamin.

The campaign, including newspaper and TV advertising, has sought to widen the scope of its reach by targeting women "who think they may have a baby one day" rather than those planning a baby. Around half of all pregnancies in Ireland are unplanned.

Research shows that only one in five pregnant women in Ireland take a folic acid supplement and over a third of women consume no folic acid at all.

The advertisements also prompt the public to submit their views on the new policy proposals. These include mandatory fortification of bread-making flour with folic acid, mandatory fortification of all flour with the vitamin, and 'structured voluntary fortification' of foods, where manufacturers would be allowed to make a health claim on foods to which they have added a specific level of folic acid.

The consultation, which closes on Friday, has so far attracted some 350 responses, 80 per cent of whom are consumers/general public and 11 per cent from healthcare professionals.

Folic acid is already proven to halve incidence of birth defects in countries where it is already mandated. However there are currently no European countries requiring flour to be fortified with the B vitamin.

The National Committee on Folic Acid Food Fortification will make a policy recommendation, based on the consultation, to the minister for health and children later this year.

The consultation can be accessed on a specially designed website​.