New Mexico ( KKOB) – Health experts are considering a national requirement to add folic acid to corn masa, the flour used to make tortillas and tamales. Folic acid, a key Vitamin B, has been required in enriched wheat products such as wheat and white breads, cereals and pastas since 1998. A move credited with preventing about 1,300 cases of serious birth defects each year. Corn masa was left out of that rule, and rates of spina bifida and anencephaly remain higher among Hispanic infants. In fact, in California alone, the rate is twice as high as white or black women. That is why California has already adopted a folic acid requirement for corn masa, while similar bills are pending in Alabama which will be presented in June, and other states.
Among the brands that do include Folic Acid are Mission Foods, and Azteca which includes some varieties of Maseca.
Not everyone agrees though, Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr, criticized California’s new law calling it “insanity” and targeting poor and communities of color.
