The Bread and Flour (Amendment) Regulations 2024 have now been published, amending the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998, and setting minimum compositional and labelling requirements for bread and flour.

The amendment updates current requirements on the addition of specified vitamins and minerals to non-wholemeal wheat flour and introduces the mandatory addition of folic acid to help reduce incidences of Neural Tube Defect (NTD) affected pregnancies.

NTDs are birth defects of the brain, spine, or spinal cord of the foetus and affect approximately 800 pregnancies a year in England and around 1,000 pregnancies in the UK as a whole. NTD risk is associated with low levels of blood folate among pregnant women and women who could become pregnant. In the UK, women who could become pregnant are advised to take a daily supplement of 400 micrograms of folic acid (synthetic form of folate) prior to conception and up until the 12th week of pregnancy. However as approximately half of pregnancies are unplanned, many women do not take folic acid supplements during this period.

The instrument introduces the compulsory addition of folic acid to non-wholemeal wheat flour, which is expected to reduce incidences of NTD affected pregnancies by 15-22% per year preventing around 100-210 potentially life-threatening spinal conditions in England and 150-220 in the UK as a whole.

The policy is supported by recommendations from the Science Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) and research modelling the potential impact of fortification of flour with folic acid.

The amendment also clarifies requirements and certain definitions, as well as removing some technical barriers to compliance to ensure the regulations are fit for purpose. The instrument introduces exemptions for small-scale producers and modernises the enforcement regime by moving to an improvement notice approach.

From the end of 2026 millers and flour producers will be required to fortify non-wholemeal wheat flour with folic acid.

The new regulations can be found here