Folic-acid-free flour and bread

Last revised 16 January 2026

Since the law changed in November 2024, the mills from which the majority of bakeries and industrial dough fabricators in the UK buy their flour have been moving over to adding folic acid to their non-wholemeal wheat flours, as mandated. All will have done so by the compliance deadline in December 2026.

Note: This is information for people who already know they want or (in some cases) need to avoid this addition to their flour, bread or industrial dough products.

Find out more
For more information about the addtion of folic acid and flour 'fortification' in general, including an outline and history of the UK legislation, the Campaign's position, our responses to governmental public consultations, and discussion of the issues / concerns, please head to our flour ‘fortification’ page.

Can I choose to be additive-free?

Other than giving up bread (and industrial dough products) altogether, the main option for most people in the UK is wholemeal flour, and bread made from it.

As the result of lobbying by the Real Bread Campaign and others, the 2024 amendment to the Regulations added two (small) exemptions from all flour ‘fortification’ requirements: 

1. Non-wholemeal wheat flour from mills that produce no more than 500 tonnes of flour a year.
2. Flour milled from wheats other than Triticum aestivum: spelt, einkorn emmer, durum, khorasan etc.

Otherwise, people in the UK wanting or needing to avoid one or more of the mandatory flour ‘fortificants’ have these options:

• Non-wheat flour (rye, barley, oat, soya, pea, bean, potato etc.) to which mandatory ‘fortification’ does not apply.
• Mill your own. The Regulations only apply to non-wholemeal wheat flour sold in the UK, so some people choose to obtain tabletop mills and make their own fresh flour.  
• Stick it in your suitcase. It's generally legal to bring back ‘unfortified’ wheat flour from overseas trips for personal use, but check the Governmental website for any restrictions.
• Imported baked products. Strangely, although it is illegal to import and sell ‘unfortified’ non-wholemeal wheat flour, it is legal for companies to import and sell such products that were manufactured outside the UK from ‘unfortified’ flour – the ingredients list will show if ‘fortificants’ have been added.

Additionally, bakeries, retailers, eateries etc. in Northern Ireland can still import and sell ‘unfortified’ flour from EU or EEA countries - a choice that Brexit took away from people in the rest of the UK.

Where can I buy ‘unfortified’ flour?

Places where you can find details of independent mills (many of which produce only wholemeal flour and / or 500 tonnes of flour or less a year) include the:

• Real Bread Map
• Britain and Ireland Community Grain Associations map
• Brockwell Bake Association’s map of mills that produce stoneground flour
• Traditional Cornmillers Guild (TCMG) members' list

Which bakeries use ‘unfortified’ flour?

The Real Bread Campaign doesn’t have the capacity to research and compile a list: there are hundreds of bakeries, producing thousands of different products and the situation is continually changing.

Some Real Bread bakeries buy all of their flour from small, exempted mills, or mill their own flour - you can search the Real Bread Map for a bakery and ask them.

If our funding situation improves (which you can help by joining us and / or making a doughnation) we might be able to add an ‘only uses unfortified flour’ option that bakeries adding their details to our Real Bread Map can tick.

Why am I seeing this now?

For decades, The Bread and Flour Regulations have required that mills add four so-called ‘fortificants’ (calcium, iron, thiamine and niacin) to almost all non-wholemeal (white, brown, multigrain, Granary^TM, malthouse etc.) wheat flour sold in the UK, including certified organic products. As a result, bread and other foods made using those flours contain these, also referred to as ‘token nutrients.* Following lobbying by the Real Bread Campaign, in 2014 it became necessary to declare these on ingredients lists - though only after the EU mandated it.

Following a 2021 public consultation, an amendment to the Regulations, enacted in November 2024, now requires mills to also add folic acid (a synthetic form of the folate found naturally in green vegetables and other foods), giving companies until 13 December 2026 to comply.

The stated aim of this latest measure is to reduce the number of babies being born with (or miscarried due to) neural tube defects (NTD). Based on figures given by the most recent governmental consultation on this issue, this addition to the existing involuntary mass mediation of the nation (around 66 million people in 2019) was predicted to reduce the number of pregnancies affected by NTDs by about 150-200 a year. There are a range of moral and medical questions and concerns related to 'fortification', many of which were raised in the 2013 and 2021 public consultations.

*Some companies choose to add minerals and synthetic forms of vitamins to their foods voluntarily, notably breakfast cereals. This allows marketers to make a range of nutritional claims, even on foods that are otherwise unhealthy - low in fibre, high in sugar etc.

Can we get the law changed?

The Real Bread Campaign has been challenging the so-called ‘fortification’ of flour since 2009, including through public consultations that sucessive governments have run. Our position remains that there are better ways to improve public health and nutrition than involuntary mass medication of the nation, which effectively denies people their right to choose what goes into the food they eat.

Having helped to secure the two small exemptions in the Bread and Flour Regulations amendment enacted in November 2024, we highly doubt the Government will consider another review any time soon.

If you'd like to lead the charge for change, though, please drop us a line and we'll consider what role we might be able to play.

Organic flour

In response to a comment on an Instagram post, Soil Association replied: 'Organic standards prohibit fortification except when it’s mandated by government. In the absence of a cohesive food strategy, and in the context of folic acid deficiencies, fortification of non-wholemeal wheat flour might provide benefit for vulnerable groups. Over-refining has led to severe nutritional depletion in bread-making flour.'

Soil Association went on to state: 'However, we don’t see fortification as the ideal long-term solution - government priority instead should be creating an environment in which healthy diets, based around minimally processed foods, are affordable and available to everyone.' The organisation concluded that it would be publishing a full statement on its website 'soon'.

See also

Additive-free flour (by former TCMG chair, and past Real Bread Campaign working party member, Jon Cook of Prior's Mill)

• Flour 'fortification'
• The Real Bread Campaign's response to the 2022 public consultation
• The Real Bread Campaign's response to the 2013 public consultation

Updates

You can also search the UK Parliament website for written questions, answers and statements on the subject of folic acid.

19 November 2025: Responding to a written question about the addition of folic acid to flour, Ashley Dalton (Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department of Health and Social Care) stated 'The Government is exploring options to evaluate the policy, which will assess health impacts across different population groups.'