If one were looking for a test of the effectiveness of the new significant scientific agreement standard specified in the 1990 Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, no one would have to look much farther than the history of folic acid fortification to find evidence that less can be more in the rapidly changing landscape of modern science. In the case of folic acid, the new scientific standard, feared by so many, actually worked not only to lessen the bureaucratic load, but in this case also appears to have conferred significant public health benefits….
This issue was much less about turf and the omnipresent battle between the vigorous purveyors of vitamins and the heroic defenders of natural foods than the press perceived at the time. It was far more of a scientific struggle over research rigor complicated by a mandate to implement the desires of Congress as they had been expressed through some very new and seemingly complicated laws. Complicated legal and scientific issues, however, rarely command headlines.”
Folic Acid Fortification: Fact and Folly
by Suzanne White Junod, Ph.D.
FDA Historian
