Tortillas sold in California will soon change forever in hopes that a new ingredient will boost infant health.
Beginning New Year’s Day, most tortillas and corn masa products sold in the state will be required to contain folic acid, a vitamin that’s vital to baby health.
But critics warn it could forever affect the taste of the state’s tacos. Even though the required dose is tiny, folic acid doesn’t taste great.
Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano put it to the test last year — and the results weren’t pretty. In a blind taste test between a regular tortilla and one loaded with the B vitamin, he and tortilla factory owners could immediately spot the difference.
State data shows that Latina women in California are far less likely than non-Latina women to get enough of the vitamin early in pregnancy. Lack of folic acid can lead to life-altering birth defects.
Between 2017 and 2019, data showed about 28 percent of Latinas reported taking folic acid the month before becoming pregnant, while white women checked in at 46 percent, according to the California Department of Public Health.
A lack of folic acid puts women at higher risk of giving birth to babies with such birth defects as spina bifida and anencephaly, which impact the brain and spinal cord.
Research shows folic acid can reduce these birth defects by up to 70 percent.
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In 1998, the US required manufacturers to fortify some grain products with folic acid — like pasta, rice and cereals — to help women get the necessary amounts of the vitamin. Since then, the rate of babies born with neural tube defects dropped by about one third, according to the CDC.
Despite the lower numbers of birth defects, Latin women have had a consistently higher rate of babies born with these types of abnormalities. While the US approved allowing folic acid in corn masa, it was not a requirement. Now, with the implementation of Assembly Bill 1830, California is the first state to require the vitamin in corn masa products, which is used in many staple Latin foods.
Alabama has passed its own version of the law, which goes into effect in June 2026.
Some manufacturers have already been adding folic acid to their products. Mission Foods said it started fortifying its foods back in 2016, when the federal government first allowed it, and it supports the new laws in California and Alabama.
