The UK to Require Folic Acid in Bread Flour from December 2026

The United Kingdom (UK) will require millers to add folic acid to non-wholemeal wheat flour by December 2026, the Department of Health and Social Care said, in a move expected to prevent around 200 cases of serious birth defects in babies every year.

Separate but similar regulations are being introduced in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Folic acid is a B vitamin that helps prevent neural tube defects — problems that happen when a baby's brain or spine does not form properly in the earliest weeks of pregnancy, sometimes causing spina bifida or, in the most serious cases, a baby born without parts of the brain and skull.

The change is expected to cut these cases by around 20%, the UK government estimates. UK flour is already fortified by law with iron, calcium and other nutrients, so this adds one more, and it follows a recommendation first made by the government's own nutrition advisers back in 2006.

Nearly half of pregnancies in the UK are unplanned, according to NHS data, which is part of why fortifying a food almost everyone eats matters, while the NHS still advises women trying to conceive to take folic acid supplements before and during early pregnancy.