Who Is Behind the Global Folic Acid Fortification Agenda?

Written by UK Medical Freedom Alliance on November 2, 2026. Posted in Current News

On 21st October, UKMFA’s CEO, Dr Liz Evans, appeared as a guest presenter on UK Column News (segment begins at 17:00) to give viewers an update on the UK’s Folic Acid Flour Fortification mandate, and to present her deep dive into the global players pushing this toxic agenda

Thanks to UK Column for providing this platform to increase public awareness of this important issue.

Her 15-minute presentation included the following key points:

• The UK’s 2024 mandate came about by Statutory Instrument, with NO Parliamentary debate and NO full impact assessment.
• The “folic acid” being added to flour is NOT natural methyl-folate/Vitamin B9, but is a synthetic, unmethylated, oxidised folate called pterylmonoglutamic acid, which the body must first convert to methylfolate via a slow 4-step process.
• The leading global producer of folic acid for food fortification, DSM Firmenich, admits on an advert for one of their premium products that “Up to 75 percent of people in the world may not be able to convert folic acid”.
• The US has had mandatory fortification for three decades and a 2014 study found >95 percent of Americans have unmetabolised folic acid in their blood, which may lead to serious health problems such as: masking B12 deficiency – causing neurological damage; and fuelling cancers e.g. prostate and bowel cancers.
• The UK’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) first advised the Government against fortification in 2002, due to the risk to elderly people from B12 deficiency masking. Then, inexplicably, in 2005 they produced another report, this time recommending fortification, despite the known risk to the elderly and other concerns.
• SACN have been pushing for mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid since 2005, despite their 2017 report admitting that: about 0.5 percent of the population were already exceeding the upper safe limit; that measures would be needed to monitor folic acid intakes and blood levels; and that the evidence on folic acid and prostate and bowel cancer risk remained “inconclusive” with further research required.
• The 2024 fortification mandate followed a public consultation in 2019, which only had around 1400 responses, of which only 53 percent were in favour.
• There has been no Parliamentary debate on folic acid fortification of flour since 2018. The only debate was in the House of Lords in 2024, before the Statutory Instrument was passed.
• Mandatory fortification of a staple food is an important ethical issue. It violates informed consent and is akin to using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The policy is aimed to benefit the women with “unplanned pregnancies” who are not taking a folic acid pregnancy supplement (less than one percent pf the population). Yet, the whole population of 70 million men, women and children will be forced to ingest a synthetic drug through a staple food, that none of the men, post-menopausal women, children or babies can benefit from at all.
• The cause and effect link between folate deficiency and NTDs is not the whole story. Even the WHO admits that “low folate concentrations cannot explain all cases of NTDs” and that there is no threshold for folate levels that prevents NTDs.
• Folic acid may even be dangerous to the developing fetus – indicated by the detailed results (table 2 below) from a 1992 Hungarian Study into the effects of folic acid supplementation in pregnant women on NTDs, which found NINE fetal deaths for every one NTD prevented.

• Mass medication through fortification gives no control over the dose an individual receives. Individual doses will vary widely, depending on the amount of fortified flour consumed. Worryingly, children may ingest the most folic acid, as they are high consumers of other fortified foods such as breakfast cereals.
• The NHS warns certain groups of people who are at higher risks of side-effects from folic acid NOT to take folic acid supplements at all! Including people with cancer, vitamin B12 deficiency or pernicious anaemia, or a coronary stent. Or taking certain common medications and supplements. This huge cohort of people will struggle to avoid fortified flour in food.
• The Food Fortification Initiative are a key player pushing fortification globally. When they were founded in 2002 only 38 countries mandated fortification. 25 years on, 86 countries now mandate the fortification of wheat flour and/or other grains.
• The map of countries who have mandated fortification is very interesting. The UK are the only country in Europe who adulterate their grains. The US is the most prolific fortifier of many grains. Whereas Russia, China, India and much of Africa have kept their grains pure.
• The WHO is keen on fortification, along with the World Bank and other key players.
• The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition or GAIN (a non-profit foundation launched in 2002 at the UN) seems to be the vehicle to bring national and supranational stakeholders together in public-private partnerships to push the fortification agenda.
• The Gates Foundation is GAIN’s single largest philanthropic funder, putting in well over $100 million.
• An October 2020 policy document (link on this page) shows that GAIN, the Food Fortification Initiative and others identified the Covid crisis as a golden opportunity to fast-track fortification policies and even to advertise fortified foods in Covid public health communications!

GOOD NEWS! Dr Clare Craig’s Government petition to immediately repeal the folic acid amendment recently passed the 100,000 signatures required to be considered for a Parliamentary debate.

CALL TO ACTION: Please write to your MP ahead of any debate to inform them of the issues. You can use this helpful template letter produced by HART to urge your MP to lobby for the amendment to be paused, to be debated in the Chamber, and for a formal inquiry.

Please visit the UKMFA “Protect Our Daily Bread” Campaign page for more information, resources, news and calls to action.

See more here substack.com

Header image: The Guardian

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