Tortillas May Soon Gain Life-Saving Vitamin
There may be plenty of different foods out there, but even the most complex menu item can have some basic ingredients. It’s hard to imagine a lot of meals without bread, for example; anyone who frequents a Mexican restaurant can say the same about tortillas. But as it so happens, bread has something incredibly vital that the average tortilla has done without for years — and now there’s a campaign for that to change.
The key element in this case is folic acid. It’s a recommended part of a pregnant woman’s diet, as it can prevent neural birth defects and paralysis; if it can’t be taken in supplement form, then it can still be had from anything with enriched flour. The problem is that folic acid addition has routinely skipped the corn masa flour used to make tortillas, tamales, corn chips, and more. As a result, it puts Hispanic women in America at a disadvantage from the first minute on.
Researchers have experimented with ways to close the gap and make a case for the FDA to enhance corn masa flour. Recent experiments have shown that it’s possible to add folic acid and keep the resultant foods stable, even with large-scale productions. The data has been sent to the FDA, but it may take several months before any changes take place; still, the fact that there might be a change at all is enough for now.
