Neural tube defects food fortification

GE Gaull, CA Testa, PR Thomas, DA Weinreich. Fortification of the food supply with folic acid to prevent neural tube defects is not yet warranted. J Nutr 126 773S-780S, 1996. 

In 1992, the US Public Health Service issued a recommendation that all women capable of becoming pregnant consume 400 tg of folic acid daily to reduce the risk of having a child born with a neural tube defect (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1992). Food fortification was implemented to reduce the number of pregnancies affected by NTDs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2005). Estimates have shown that the additional intake of folic acid through food fortification has been effective in reducing the prevalence of NTDs at birth. 

Folacin has recently been implicated in a number of nonvitamin functions, including roles in various types of cancer, coronary heart disease, and the prevention of birth defects, such as neural tube abnormalities (109,121,131-144). Investigations into these functions are ongoing and have generated controversy concerning the exact nature of the nonvitamin functions, human nutritional requirements for folacin, and the wisdom of food fortification or supplementation of selected population groups with pharmacological doses of folic acid (131,132,145-150). 

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