New Study Shows Most Corn Masa Products in the United States Are Not Fortified with Folic Acid
Photo: A stack of tortillas made with corn masa flour. (David Boté Estrada/Flickr)
FFI works to close a gap in US fortification coverage
A 2023 FFI analysis of the corn masa supply chain and market in the United States (US) found that less than 6% of corn masa products in the United States are fortified with folic acid.
Though many staple foods in the US are required to be fortified with folic acid, corn masa products—a key staple of the American Hispanic community—are not.
Hispanic women are 19% more likely than non-Hispanic women to have a pregnancy affected by a serious birth defect of the brain and spine called a neural tube defect. Lack of access to fortified foods contributes to Hispanic communities in the US experiencing these disproportionately high rates of neural tube defects like spina bifida.
The analysis was carried out with support from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as part of a larger CDC-FFI project to make evidence-based recommendations for scaling up corn masa fortification so that all American women get the essential micronutrients they need for a healthy pregnancy.
“Through this research, we hope to better understand the gaps and opportunities for corn masa fortification in the US. These findings show that the US Food and Drug Administration’s 2016 allowance for corn masa flour to be fortified by the food industry on a voluntary basis is not enough.”
A CDC study estimated that 127 neural tube defects could be prevented annually by increasing folate status among Hispanic women whose sole folic acid source is through fortification.
“Our ultimate goal is for a more equitable American food system, where all corn masa flour manufactured in the US, along with all end-use products that are corn masa flour based, are fortified with folic acid to reduce the number of neural tube defects in the Hispanic population,” Bustrak says.
Fortifying corn masa products in the US with folic acid provides a tremendous opportunity to transform lives, prevent birth defects, and reduce inequities in the American food system.