Minutes of the meeting of the National Committee on Folic Acid Food Fortification
Thursday, 14 April 2005

Minutes of the meeting of the National Committee on Folic Acid Food Fortification at the Food Safety Authority of Ireland held on Thursday, 14 April 2005 at 11:00, in the FSAI offices, Abbey Court, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin.

PRESENT:
Ms Maureen Lynott (Chair) [ML]
Dr Louise Sullivan [LS]
Prof. Albert Flynn [AF]
Mr Eamon Corcoran [EC]
Dr Davida de la Harpe [DdlH]
Dr Catherine Hayes [CH]
Ms Joanna Gibson [JG]
Mr Nick Killian [NK]
Dr Mary Flynn [MF]
Dr Sean Daly [SD]
Dr Orla Healy [OH]
Dr John Devlin [JD]
Dr Fenton Howell [FH]
Ms Margot Brennan [MB]
Mr Alan Reilly [AR]

IN ATTENDANCE:
Ms Eileen Lippert [EL]

APOLOGIES:
Dr Harry Comber [HC]
Dr Cliodhna Foley Nolan [CFN]
Dr Ailis ni Riain [AnR]
Prof. Joe McMenamin [JMc]
Dr Kevin O'Donnell [KO'D]
Prof. John Scott

1 Agree Minutes of the Last Meeting

Agreed: The minutes of the meeting of 11 February 2005 were agreed without amendment.

2. Matters Arising, Including New Members

Noted: There were no matters arising as all items were actioned except for one which was an agenda item.

3.  Declarations of Interest / Conflict of Interest

Noted: A copy of the conflict of interest form was made available to the members for their comment. There were no issues with the document and the members were asked to complete the document and return it to the FSAI.

4.  Update on Consultation

Noted: An update on consultation website was provided by the FSAI. A breakdown of the statistics was shared. It was confirmed that a leaflet has been published and will be issued in the near future with the RTE Guide. Notices have been placed in national newspapers and an advertisement has been created and has been viewed on several TV channels.

Noted: It was confirmed that the campaign has resulted in extra work for some of the organisations represented on the National Committee. A minor error was also pointed out and FSAI agreed to rectify it. Some of the future plans to publicise the issue of folic acid fortification were also discussed.

Noted: There was a query as to how to handle the information received from the consultation and this was discussed the Committee. A report on the main issues from the consultation will be available for the next meeting.

Noted: Members were asked if they had any additional comments to make regarding the consultation and there were none.

5 Report on the Subcommittees

Subcommittee on Consultation Document and Technical Matters

Noted: The task of this Subcommittee was to complete the consultation documents and these were published on the folicacid.ie website on 21 March 2005 . It is also reviewing some of the technical matters raised and dialogue will continue with industry.

Subcommittee for Register of Congenital Birth Defects

Noted: The Chair of this Subcommitee apprised the members of the main progress of the group. The Subcommittee is in favour of a register to be run by the Health Service Executive (HSE) and it should follow the EUROCAT model. Some issues of data confidentiality were raised and hence a meeting took place between representatives of the Subcommittee and the Data Protection Commissioner. This meeting raised some issues which will have to be discussed at the next meeting of the National Committee.

Noted: The issue of the Register sparked much discussion. It was agreed that a register would be pointless unless the full data was available for it.

Agreed: The Department of Health and Children (DoHC) should deal with the legislation issues related to the Register and arrange for HSE to maintain it however; this cannot be resolved straight away. The DoHC also felt confident that it could address some of the confidentiality issues.

Subcommittee on Risk, Adverse Effects and Benefits of Folic Acid Fortification

Noted: This group had its first meeting just before the meeting of the National Committee and some of the main points discussed was what the objective of the Subcommittee was. They agreed that the Subcommittee should concentrate on other aspects (e.g. hypersensitivity) of folic acid than the issue of pernicious anaemia as this was discussed in detail in the FSAI report to the Minister of June 2003.

6 Report on Fact Finding Trip to USA and Canada

Noted: A delegation from the NCFAFF went on a fact finding mission to CDC Atlanta, Emory University , Atlanta , the US Food and Drug Administration in Washington and Health Canada in Ottawa to gain first hand information on their mandatory fortification schemes. Each member of the delegation gave their insights into the information received and found the meetings to be highly beneficial. A full report on the trip will be available to the members in the near future. Following the oral update, a discussion took place on several aspects raised, especially, the difference between USA and Canada versus Europe .

Agreed: As a result of discussions, some members of the committee agreed to discuss a population monitoring study and report back at the next meeting. Funding was flagged as an issue and it was suggested that discussion should take place with the Health Research Board.

7 Review of Work Plan

Noted: It was confirmed that the NCFAFF is on schedule. The issue of meeting with particular interest groups was discussed and it was confirmed that key informant groups will be met. A list of the key informants, when complete, will be circulated to the members. The NCFAFF also reiterated that if a particular group expressed an interest in meeting the NCFAFF, it should try to facilitate this.

Noted: There was a query whether the secretariat was doing anything to ascertain if the public and interested parties are aware we are consulting them? A question on this topic will be included in a future omnibus survey.

8 AOB

Noted: An expert on folic acid fortification from Canada will be in Ireland on 24 June and will take part in a national seminar on folic acid food fortification which will be organised by the FSAI on 24 th June 2005 . Members of the NCFAFF will be invited to attend.

Agreed: Some useful information from the GMS will be sourced for the National Committee by DoHC.

9 Date of Next Meeting

Noted: The next meeting will take place on 23 June in the FSAI. The meeting will commence at 10:30 and finish at 16:30.