Kedgley Sue: Motions — Food Standards—Folic Acid in Bread 
Kedgley Sue: Motions — Food Standards—Folic Acid in Bread 
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SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party will not be supporting the motion to disallow the standard. We were not part of the Regulations Review Committee and we share the concern that the Labour Party mentioned that there was a very short 1-month consultation period. Nevertheless we think that the Government acted wisely when it followed Ireland and the United Kingdom who put on hold their mandatory folate fortification plans. Instead the Government has initiated a two-year review before moving to mandatory fortification. We think that that was a very wise decision and we wholeheartedly support the Government in it. 
The reason for this is that in our view if we are to think about introducing mandatory fortification—a compulsory measure that would affect virtually every New Zealander—rather than a voluntary measure which would allow consumers to have a choice a much higher test would need to be met. The Government would need to be absolutely certain that requiring a synthetic additive to be added to almost every loaf of bread in New Zealand would be effective that nobody would get too high a dose of folic acid that there would not be any harmful side effects in the long term and that there is no better way to achieve the desired outcome. In our view the mandatory fortification of virtually all bread with folic acid would fail to meet all of those criteria. Namely it is unlikely to be effective; it would result in some sectors of the population receiving too high a dose; there is—and I will expand on this—significant scientific concern about the long-term effects of mandatory fortification and as well as Moana Mackey I have also done an examination of the scientific research; and there are better ways of achieving the desired outcome. 
I look first at whether mandatory fortification would be effective. Would adding folic acid to bread achieve the objective of reducing the incidence of spina bifida in the population? The Government’s own advice from the New Zealand Food Safety Authority and from the Minister for Food Safety estimates that in order for that to be effective women would need to eat approximately 11 slices of bread every day to get the necessary supplementation if they were not eating a diet rich in folate. The problem is that the people whom we are targeting are the very people who do not eat a diet rich in folate. The advice went on to say— 
Moana Mackey 
: It’s targeting every woman. 
SUE KEDGLEY 
: It is interesting that the member said she wanted to have a reasoned debate and she understood that there are different points of view on this issue yet here she is shouting about it. Let us just have a reasonable debate because there are very different points of view. The Food Safety Authority went on to say that as well as consuming up to 11 slices of bread women would also need to take folic acid supplementation at the same time. This begs the question of how many young women particularly the young women whom we would be targeting are likely to consume approximately 11 slices of bread every day. I would suggest few if any. The other question is why a Government would want to encourage women or anyone to eat 11 slices of bread a day since this would contribute to obesity rates and consequent health problems such as type 2 diabetes. Why would the Government propose a public health measure that would contribute to significant public health problems especially when it is allegedly committed to reducing the incidence of obesity and type 2 diabetes? 
The second issue is whether the Government could be certain that nobody would get too high a dose of folic acid if there was mandatory fortification. The answer is that it could not be certain because the Government has been given advice by the Food Safety Authority that some children will regularly consume excessive amounts of folic acid if we go ahead with mandatory fortification. It said: “We continue to have concerns that 13.8% of New Zealand males aged 5-8 years and 8.2% of New Zealand females aged 5-8 years are going to exceed the upper level of intake …”. It points out that mandatory fortification with folic acid in America resulted in 43 percent of children under 5 years of age having too much folic acid. We know that our young children would have too high a dose of folic acid according to the Food Safety Authority. Should this matter? Does this matter? Many will say: “So what?”. Well it matters a lot because we have considerable conflicting research about the benefits and harms of folic acid. Sure there is evidence—and we do not dispute it—that folic acid can protect against some cancers and against spina bifida. But at the same time it can accelerate the risk of developing cancers—in particular colon cancer—and the growth of pre-cancerous tumours and cells which are of course common in our population. In other words high intakes of folic acid can be beneficial to some and detrimental to others at the same time. 
I can recite many professors if the member would like me to do that but I will quote just one Professor Joel Mason. He said folic acid is a two-edged sword and that “… We’re presented with this horrible dilemma that on the one hand taking ample quantities of folic in the diet is helpful. On the other hand it might be accelerating the risk of developing certain cancers in certain people.” It is because of this that Professor David Smith said as a high folic acid intake may be harmful to some people and cause the growth of pre-cancerous tumours and cells “Nations considering fortification should be cautious”—I repeat: “Nations considering fortification should be cautious”—and they should undertake further research before developing strategies for the population as a whole. In fact he is also quoted as saying “Fortifying all flour with folic acid is potentially a national health disaster” and he has argued that if the Americans had known in 1996 what we know now then they would never have introduced it. 
We cannot dispute this. There is evidence that folic acid can cause pre-cancerous tumours to grow and there is also evidence that it can be beneficial to some people. So I ask why a responsible Government faced with evidence that high intakes of folic acid can cause pre-cancerous tumours to grow would introduce it on a mandatory basis in all breads so that every New Zealander would be consuming it and some would be consuming potentially dangerously high levels of it. Some researchers are worried about epidemiological research that shows that at the same time as Canada and America introduced mandatory fortification there was also an increase in the rates of colon cancer. Everyone acknowledges that this does not prove a link but it does invite caution. That is one of the reasons why both Ireland and the United Kingdom have put mandatory fortification on hold while they look at the emerging issues of cancer risk. These are conservative bodies. Similarly a group of Irish experts said we should defer making a decision on mandatory fortification because they are aware of new studies that suggest a link between high intakes of folic acid and the risk of cancer. 
Ireland found that voluntary fortification there increased folate levels in its population by 30 percent and that there is no need for mandatory fortification if there is a successful roll-out of voluntary fortification. I am aware that 34 brands of bread have been fortified with folic acid. Other researchers say that if half of all women who are planning a pregnancy took folic acid supplements at the correct time then the reduction in the incidence of neural tube defects would be equivalent to that achieved by mandatory fortification. But I think there was concern about whether bakers would follow through on their promise to introduce the voluntary fortification of bread. They have introduced it to 34 breads. Frankly I am concerned that many of the breads they are introducing it to are wholemeal breads when its introduction should be focused on white breads. The member for Labour pointed out that one of the problems is that wholemeal breads have folic acid in them naturally but it is stripped out of white flour during processing. Surely then that is the problem. We should try to stop the processing that strips out folic acid and give people wholemeal bread.