TWO senior health experts have today called for Scotland to “go it alone” and add “Vitamin Benign” to bread flour, The National can reveal.

Dr Linda de Caestecker, director of public health at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and Dr Jonathan Sher, of Edinburgh University’s Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy, today urge Holyrood to take action to boost intake of folic acid (Vitamin B9) in an article in this newspaper.

They argue that failing to do so will cause preventable pain and heartache to families, stating: “Scotland has the legal power, and we believe a moral obligation” to take action.

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The substance, found naturally in lentils, beans and dark green vegetables like broccoli and spinach, is already added to some foods, including breakfast cereals, and a deficiency is linked to birth defects in unborn babies.

According to NHS recommendations, pregnant women and those trying to conceive should take 400 micrograms of folic acid every day.

The advice aims to prevent spina bifida and other defects of the brain, spine or spinal cord in unborn children. Deficiency is also linked to miscarriage and stillbirth.

However, it is thought more than 85 per cent of women in the UK lack sufficient quantities of the nutrient, dubbed “Vitamin Benign” by de Caestecker and Sher because it has “strong benefits with no significant downside”.

In 2016 the then public health minister Maureen Watt responded to pressure from campaign groups by saying Scotland may follow the lead of almost 80 other countries and add the vitamin to flour in the face of inaction by the UK Government.

Last summer, Ross Finnie of Food Standards Scotland said the move would be effective, but that UK-wide action was needed, and in December the Scottish and Welsh Governments wrote a join letter to UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt calling for mandatory fortification of the staple food.

The Department for Health said it would consider the call.

Now de Caestecker and Sher have urged Holyrood to use its powers to protect families from preventable health problems.

Arguing that Holyrood has “a moral obligation” to “finish what the Scottish Government started”, they state: “There are worse outcomes than Scotland having to ‘go it alone’ – such as the shameful human and financial costs of standing idly by as preventable terminations, miscarriages, stillbirths, infant deaths and birth defects are not prevented.”

Responding, public health minister Aileen Campbell said: “We remain convinced that fortifying flour with folic acid will reduce the number of babies who are born with conditions such as spina bifida and agree with the substance of Dr de Castecker’s letter.

“After repeated indications that the UK Government would not act, recent correspondence from the Secretary of State suggested that the UK Government may reassess its position in light of what we consider compelling evidence.

“We currently await a full response from the UK Government to our letter of November 28 2017 and we would encourage them to act quickly on fortification.”