Bread and Food Law

Bread and flour are specifically regulated in the UK, at the time of writing, by the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998, The Food Labelling (Amendment) regulations 1998, and the Miscellaneous Food Additives (Amendment) Regulations 1999. 

Current British fortification of bread and flour is restricted to fortifying white and brown flour and bread with those materials that would be present in wholemeal bread or flour. 

White and brown flour in the UK have to be fortified with calcium, iron, thiamine (vitamin Bl), and niacin (vitamin B3 also known as nicotinic acid) as follows flour should contain not less than 235 mg per 100 g and not more than 390 mg per 100 g calcium carbonate, iron not less than 1.65 mg, thiamine (vitamin Bl) not less than 0.24 mg, and nicotinic acid not less than 1.6 mg or nicotinamide (which is nutritionally equivalent to nicotinic acid) not less than 1.60 mg. 

The regulations specify which flour treatments can be used in bread and flour and in which circumstances they can be used (Table 1). One obvious anomaly is that ascorbic acid is permitted in wholemeal bread but not in wholemeal flour. 

Miscellaneous Food Additives (Amendment) Regulations 1999 lays down the levels of propionates that can be added to bread. It also notes that propionates can form naturally in the fermentation of bread. 

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