Minutes of the meeting of the Folic Acid Implementation Group
Friday 10 November 2006

Minutes of the meeting of the Folic Acid Implementation Group, held on Friday 10 November 2006 at 11:00, in the FSAI offices, Abbey Court , Lower Abbey Street, Dublin.

PRESENT:
Mr Alan Reilly (Chair) [AR]
Dr Cliodhna Foley Nolan [CFN]
Dr Sean Daly [SD]
Mr Dermott Jewell [DJ]
Dr Ian Callanan [IC]
Dr Caroline Lardner [CL]
Mr Brian Mullen [BM]
Dr Bob McDonnell [BMcD]
Mr Neil McGowan [NMcG]
Dr Patrick Doorley [PD]

IN ATTENDANCE:
Ms Eileen Lippert [EL]
Dr Wayne Anderson [WA]
Ms Ruth Fitzsimmons [RF]

APOLOGIES:
Mr Eamon Corcoran [EC]
Dr Mary Flynn [MF]
Prof. John Scott [JS]
Dr John Devlin [JD]
Ms Margot Brennan [MB]
Dr Chris Laffey [CL]
Dr Tracey Cooper [TC]

1 Welcome and Introductions

Noted: TheChair welcomed all the members to the meeting and thanked them for agreeing to join the Group and requested each member to briefly introduce themselves.

2 Declarations of Interest

Noted: There were no declarations of interest.

Action: Members were requested to complete and sign the Declaration of Interest forms circulated to them and return them to the FSAI.

3 Agree Agenda

Agreed: The agenda was agreed without amendment.

4 & 5 Review Recommendations of the Report of the National Committee on Folic Acid Food Fortification and Organisation of Working Groups

Noted: A copy of the report from the National Committee was circulated to the members and the recommendations were the main focus of discussion.

Agreed: It was agreed that the best course of action would be to set up working groups to address the individual recommendations and that the WG would be chaired by members of the Implementation Group. The Chairs of the WG will be responsible for drafting terms of reference for the work of the group in consultation with the Chair of the Implementation Group and for keeping the Group abreast of its work. The following Working Groups were set up:

Recommendation 1: Policy Aspects of Folic Acid Food Fortification

Agreed: This recommendation has been accomplished, therefore no working group required to progress this.

Recommendation 2: Legislation and Folic Acid Food Fortification

Agreed: The Food Unit of the Department of Health and Children will lead on this. Eamon Corcoran will Chair the Working Group and FSAI will assist on the technical and scientific aspects.

Recommendation 3: Technical Aspects and Folic Acid food Fortification

Agreed : The FSAI will chair this WG. Other members will include IBEC, the PA Lab Galway and the industry (flour millers, bakers, etc).

Action: This WG will need to liaise with the Legislation WG in order to address labelling and technical issues.

Recommendation 4: Monitoring the Effects of Folic Acid Food Fortification

Noted: It was acknowledged this was a very complex area and there was some discussion on the topic. It was agreed that several working groups would be required to address the various aspects of this recommendation. The setting up of a national register is a major undertaking. RF from FSAI gave a presentation outlining details and features of a proposed database developed by the FSAI and the Coombe Hospital . Confidential and ethical issues were discussed.

Action: It is proposed to organise a workshop on the database in 2007.

Agreed: Sean Daly will chair the Working Group for an assessment of all pregnancies affected by NTDs, including those that do not reach term. Bob McDonnell will also join this WG and the FSAI will assist on the technical aspects.

Action: The members were asked to inform the FSAI of any individuals they consider would useful contributors to the WG.

Agreed: Bob McDonnell will lead the WG to address the issue of a national congenital birth defects register.

Noted: Measuring the folate status of the Irish population is underway and is being led by John Scott. The collection and analysis of blood samples is proceeding to establish a baseline prior to the introduction of mandatory fortification.

Agreed: John Scott will chair this WG and SD and MF will join as members.

Noted: Information was shared on the monitoring of folic acid levels in bread that has taken place and is currently on-going. Results from a survey carried out in April 2006 were circulated to the members for information. It was acknowledged that there are several technical issues to be considered here and that the Public Analyst Laboratory in Galway will play a role as the National Reference Laboratory for Folic Acid analysis.

Agreed: The FSAI will chair this WG. Caroline Lardner, Neil McGowan and another representative from industry will join as members of this WG.

Agreed: The issue of monitoring of folic acid levels in food that are voluntarily fortified will be addressed at another time.

Recommendations 5, 6 & 7: Health Professionals and Folic Acid Food Fortification
Folic Acid Supplements
Health Promotion Needs

Agreed: As these recommendations are all linked, it was proposed and accepted that one WG could deal with these. Catherine Murphy from HSE was proposed to chair this group. Pat Doorley, Brian Mullen, Cliodhna Foley Nolan and Dermott Jewell also agreed to join. It was also suggested that it may be necessary to co-opt representatives from other Non-Governmental Organisations and this was accepted.

6 Work Plan

Action: Each WG should have broad terms of reference and timeframe drawn up for the next meeting of the Implementation Group. FSAI also offered to host the various WG meetings in its offices subject to the decisions of the various WG Chairs. For further information, please contact Eileen Lippert.

7 Correspondence

Noted: There was no correspondence.

8 AOB

Alternates

Noted: Members were encouraged to nominate an alternate in the event that they could not attend a meeting of the Implementation Group.

Working Groups

Agreed : The Chairs of the various WG should revert to the FSAI in advance of the next meeting of the Implementation Group with a short progress report and/or their terms of reference.

Publications

Agreed: Members agreed to the minutes of these meetings being posted onto www.folicacid.ie

Noted: There will be an article about the Implementation Group in the next edition of fsainews.

9 Date of Next Meeting

Noted: The next meeting will take place in mid January 2006. EL will circulate possible dates.