- Several states are considering legislation that would require food makers to add folic acid, a crucial vitamin, to corn masa flour used to make tortillas and other traditional foods widely used in the Latino community.
- Folic acid, a key B vitamin, has been required to be added to enriched wheat and white breads, cereals and pastas in the U.S. for the past 30 years but corn masa flour was left out of the original fortification requirement
- As a result, rates of conditions such as spina bifida and anencephaly in that community have remained stubbornly high.
- California passed a law requiring folic acid to be added to corn masa flour in January and Alabama will introduce a similar law in June.
- Legislation is pending or being considered in Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma and Oregon and four more states — Texas, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — have expressed “active interest” in the issue, according to the Food Fortification Initiative, an advocacy group that focuses on addressing micronutrient deficiencies.
IN FULL
New law requiring extra ingredient in tortillas expands as US states follow suit
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