LENEXA, KAN. — Corbion is working with corn tortilla manufacturers to fortify products with folic acid. Studies have demonstrated that consuming folic acid before and during the first weeks of pregnancy, along with a healthy diet, helps lower the risk of neural tube defects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Corn tortillas present an important opportunity for our customers to deliver greater value — in this case, potentially life-changing value — to their consumers through enhanced nutrition,” said Scott Bieker, vice president, milling and bakery at Corbion. “We’re putting our Nutrivan solutions and our fortification expertise to work to help them seize that opportunity by bridging the folic acid gap.”
The Nutrivan portfolio includes vitamin, mineral and electrolyte premixes.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of folic acid to fortify corn masa flour in 2016, but a study from the Center for Science in the Public Interest found that among 59 corn masa flour products and 476 corn tortilla products sold in the United States between 2018 and 2022, 8 corn masa flour products, or 8%, and no corn tortilla products contained folic acid.
