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Until the niacin requirement was officially stated, the only information regarding nia- cin that the label could carry was the num- ber of milligrams provided, a practice in effect for many years. OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS Calcium and vitamin D are optional ingredients but, if added, must be declared on the label. If used, the levels prescribed per pound of enriched bread are as follows: Calcium Vitamin D Minimum 300 mg. 150 USP units Maximum 800 mj 750 U! :P units In general, the optional ingredients have been little used in enriched flour or bread. In enriched self-rising flour, calcium is a required ingredient. It appears as mono- basic calcium phosphate which, together with sodium bicarbonate, constitutes the leavening agent in lieu of added baking powder. This form of flour is very popular in the South and is generally enriched, but Vitamin D is not included as an optional ingredient. In 1951-52 a number of large bread- manufacturing companies began adding vitamin D to bread at levels which supplied 92 per cent of the daily requirements in 8 ounces of bread. This amount was designed to insure the proper utilization of the cal- cium supplied by the bread. Perhaps this move by bakers was dictated in some de- gree by a desire for a new advertising point. The position of the Food and Nutrition Board has been not to encourage the addi- tion of vitamin D to bread. Actually, approval of the optional ingre- dients in enriched flour and bread in 1941 by the Committee on Food and Nutrition, predecessor of the present Board, was predi- cated on some legal complications concern- ing the use of the term "enriched" which had already risen at that time. Prior to inauguration of the systematic cereal en- richment program, farina "enriched" with vitamin D had been sold by the Quaker Oats Co., which later took exception to the cereal enrichment formula proposed by the Food and Drug Administration and took the matter to court. The company won in the lower court but the decision was even- tually reversed by the Supreme Court as recounted in "Enrichment of Flour and Bread. A History of the Movement."15 In the hope that it would be of assistance in resolving these issues then in contest, the Food and Drug Administration then favored the inclusion of vitamin D as an optional ingredient. Calcium was added as a second optional ingredient on the ground that vitamin D plays a large role in the utilization of calcium. Further evidence bearing on the scien- tific merit of these inclusions has since ac- cumulated. A review of data indicates that the average calcium content of enriched bread in the United States is approximately 400 milligrams per pound16. Inasmuch as the recommended daily allowance of the Food and Nutrition Board calls for 800 milligrams for the average man, the amount supplied by bread can make a substantial contribution to the body's requirements. Bread and other grain products were sec- ond only to dairy products as a source of calcium in the average diet of families in 1955. Grain products accounted for 16 per cent of the calcium, compared with 64 per cent from dairy products17. u National Research Council Bulletin 110, (1944). p. 17. " U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. The calcium content of commercial white bread. Tech. Bull. 1055 (1952). p. 5. K. Kulp, O. C. Golosinec, C. W. Shank, and W. B. Bradley. J. Am. Dietet. Assoc. 32: 331 (1956). " U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. Dietary Levels of Households in the U. S. Household Food Consumption Survey 1955, Kept. No. 6. p. 24.
