Flour ‘fortification’ chalk supply presents a risk to the UK food system
Imported additive disruption could threaten confidence in UK food system.
On 11 December, Defra published the UK Food Security Report 2024. It runs to more than 460 pages, so time is needed to unpack the details, but a few things jumped out at me.
One unnecessary risk factor that surely could be addressed more easily than many others is chalk. This issue might seem odd for a report on food security, unless you know that The Bread and Flour Regulations require chalk (calcium carbonate, aka E170) to be added to all non-wholemeal wheat flour sold in the UK.
Chalk
Once upon a time, adulteration of flour was illegal. Amongst delicious delights such as alum, one commonly-cited adulterant was chalk. Since 1942, however, the addition of calcium carbonate (in the form of creta preparata) to all UK-milled non-wholemeal wheat flour* has been required by law. It used to be possible to import additive-free white flour from the EU but post-Brexit, that's no longer legal.
The calcium carbonate added to flour in the UK used to be quarried here. This home-hewn chalk isn’t compliant with specifications laid down in 2012, though. The report notes that the UK’s entire supply is reliant on a single quarry in France, whose chalk does meet the specs.
As all of our eggs are in one (French) basket, the report warns that disruption in this supply: ‘could lead to the depletion of stocks quickly with immediate effects on UK millers' ability to produce flour complaint with UK law’ which ‘presents a risk to the UK food system.’ In short, no chalk would mean no white bread – and no Chorleywood Process white industrial dough product.
The report goes on to highlight that: ‘bread is a staple food for the UK population with a short shelf life and any disruption would be felt immediately by the population and would likely affect public confidence in the UK food system.’ The report adds that the risk: ‘could also be true for most of the mandatory nutrients required to be added to flour.’ As examples: ‘thiamin and niacin are obtained exclusively from China due to difficult synthesis and low profit margins.’
The floury fallout wouldn’t be limited to bread and UPF loaves. It would also affect cakes, biscuits, fish fingers, sauces and everything else into which Britain’s Favourite CarbTM finds its way. Ask anyone with coeliac disease or a wheat allergy and they’ll tell you that’s a lot of foods.
Whatever your views on so-called fortification, isn’t it ridiculous that there’s no contingency clause in the Regulations to allow the sale of unadulterated flour in the case that any of the mandatory ‘fortificants’ became unavailable?
More takeaways
Other points I noted in the report include:
- Most people do not meet government dietary recommendations: Issues include mean intake of salt exceeded the recommended maximum, while mean intake of fibre fell below the recommended minimum across adults in 2019.
- The estimated 2024 English wheat harvest is likely to be down by 22% (around 2.8mt) from 2023.
- imports of wheat for flour milling account for around 15% of overall supply.
- Future climate projections suggest that the north and south-west may become more suitable for higher quality wheat in the future, while the east may suffer
- 2050 projections show time spent in drought is set to be similar to present-day for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, while increases are expected in England
- wheat is the UK’s largest food import
- the UK was consistent net exporter of wheat from 2000 to 2011, but has been a net importer since 2017.
- In 2023, organically farmed land represented 2.9% of total UK farmed area.
- The total area of UK organic farmland peaked decreased by 36% (270,000 hectares) between 2008 and 2018
These findings underline the fact that more work needs to be done to promote production and consumption of wholemeal and other high-fibre bread.
It also indicates that the UK needs to build a more diversified and sustainable wheat-flour-bread supply chain to improve resilience. The Real Bread Campaign would welcome governmental support for the work being done in this area by Real Bread bakeries and non-commodity grain networks around the UK.
*Two exemptions were introduced in Novermber 2024.
See also
- UK Food Security: latest government report points to multiple crises
- Updating and improving the Bread and Flour Regulations
Published Friday 13 December 2024
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