What Changed for Tortillas This Year
Sure, farmers grower food. And ranchers. And growers. And orchardists. But the reality is that the raw product is often just an ingredient with several steps before it actually reaches an end product in consumer's hands. For the world of tortillas, Assembly Bill 1830 is making some mandates in those interim stages.
As of January 1, the new law requires manufacturers to add folic acid to corn masa flour used in most tortillas sold in California. According to Food & Wine, the bill, authored by Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula, is intended to help prevent birth defects associated with low folic acid levels, which Arambula noted disproportionately affect the Latino community in the state.
AB 1830 also addresses a gap in a 1998 federal mandate that required folic acid fortification in enriched cereal grain products but excluded corn masa and wet masa.
For producers and processors, the practical impact is expected to be minimal. Mission, the nation’s largest tortilla manufacturer, has fortified corn masa products for years.
For California agriculture, the bill reinforces a familiar reality: the supply chain does not end at harvest, and policy decisions increasingly shape what comes next.
