From 13 December 2026, flour milled in the UK from ordinary bread wheat has to have folic acid added, unless it is wholemeal. It has come up again and again in the comments on our Facebook page, and almost always as the same practical question: if you’d rather not have it, what should you buy? This page sets out what the rule says, what it doesn’t cover, and how to tell from a bag of flour or a loaf.
What’s changing
White and other non-wholemeal wheat flour in the UK already has to have calcium, iron, niacin and thiamin added, under the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998. Folic acid joins that list, at 0.25mg per 100g of flour. Each part of the UK has its own regulations: England, Scotland and Northern Ireland made theirs in 2024 and Wales in 2025. In England the requirement starts on 13 December 2026.
Two things catch people out. Some mills switched early, so the Food Standards Agency expected fortified flour to start appearing from autumn 2025, which is why some of you have already found it on bags. And flour packed and labelled before 13 December can still be sold after it until the stock runs out, so for a while you’ll see both kinds on the shelf.
Which flours it doesn’t apply to
- Wholemeal wheat flour. Wholemeal is exempt. “Brown”, “wholegrain”, “malted” and granary-style flours are not the same thing as wholemeal, so they can be fortified. Go by the word wholemeal and the ingredients list, not the colour.
- Flour from small mills. A mill is exempt if it can produce no more than 500 tonnes of flour a year and has produced less than that in each of the last three years. Traditional watermills and windmills are often that size, but not every “stoneground” or local-sounding flour comes from one, so ask the mill.
- Spelt and other ancient wheats. The rule covers common wheat only. Spelt, einkorn, emmer and khorasan are different species, so their flours fall outside it, and so does durum.
- Flours that aren’t wheat. Rye, oat, barley, rice, buckwheat, soya and the like are outside the rule. So is gluten-free flour.
How to tell from the label
Added vitamins and minerals have to be named in the flour’s ingredients list. A fortified bag will read something like wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin, folic acid. If folic acid isn’t there, it hasn’t been added.
The same goes for food made with that flour. A loaf, a packet of biscuits or a pie that uses fortified flour has to show the added vitamins in its own ingredients list, usually in brackets after the flour. For bread from a bakery counter with no label, ask to see the ingredients. Baked goods made abroad can be sold here using unfortified flour, and again the ingredients list will tell you which they are.
Where home bakers can look
- Wholemeal bread flour is on every supermarket shelf and is the easiest choice. It makes a denser loaf than white and soaks up more water, so expect to add a little extra liquid. Our soda bread recipe works with wholemeal for exactly that reason.
- A small mill. Some sell by post as well as from the mill shop. Ask whether they are under the 500-tonne limit and whether they add folic acid to their white flour, since being exempt doesn’t stop a mill adding it.
- Spelt flour, white or wholemeal, if you want something lighter than wholemeal wheat. Spelt dough is softer and less stretchy than bread wheat, so it wants a gentler hand and a shorter knead.
- A farm shop or local bakery. Ask which flour they use. Some still buy from smaller mills, and they will usually know.
Why it’s being added
The government’s stated reason is to cut the number of pregnancies affected by neural tube defects such as spina bifida, which the Food Standards Agency expects to fall by around a fifth. The FSA says fortification does not replace its advice on folic acid supplements before and during pregnancy. The full detail is on the Food Standards Agency’s folic acid page, and the England regulations themselves are on legislation.gov.uk.
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