Mass public medication is not a subject governments should contemplate in a hurry and the example of folic acid in bread, which would require the forcing of large numbers of New Zealanders to eat the supplement when there was no need for it or health benefit to them, is a case in point.
The Clark government signed up to a joint food standards agreement with Australia and set up a Australia New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council to ensure universality in food standards and safety.
The council decided in 2007 that from September this year, folic acid would be added to all wheat flour used to make bread.
It is not being added to organic bread.
It is claimed this step will reduce the (very small) number of neural tube defect-affected pregnancies each year, although it has been admitted by the authorities that the recommended 400 microgram daily intake to prevent such problems cannot be provided from enhanced bread alone.
The science backing this decision is certainly far from being broadly accepted.
Ireland and Britain are reportedly now delaying implementation of the measure for this reason, and there are concerns about whether such a programme would be effective.
New Zealand is very much the junior partner in the ministerial council, with just one representative at this level and a substantial minority in the staffing.
There is also a domestic political dimension: Labour agreed to the measure, with the former food safety minister Annette King claiming it to be "a triumph for humanity and common sense".
National has uncertain views.
Some MPs have previously criticised the decision to use the additive but others say that since the Clark government signed up to it, there is little legal option but to let it proceed.
In practical terms, the mandatory proposal has little to commend it.
The addition of the proposed amounts to non-organic bread would, according to representatives of commercial bakers, mean women who were pregnant would need to eat 11 slices a day to achieve the desirable levels.
This simply means that folic acid supplements would still need to be taken to reach the recommended dosage levels to prevent neural tube defects, thus raising the risk of women taking more folate than necessary.
There are also questions about when higher dosages of folate should be taken to have the maximum beneficial effect on a condition many women do not necessarily suspect immediately conception actually takes place.
A red herring in the shape of a claim that the mandatory addition of folic acid to most bread would give more power to the State to interfere with food for other assumed medical benefits, such as compulsorily removing additives like "excess" sugar and fats, is further complicating public debate.
Probably of more concern to the wider public is the assumption that New Zealand is being dictated to by Australia, and that this country is powerless to do anything about it.
While Australia has never been shy of protecting its domestic interests at New Zealand's expense, on this particular matter the problem seems to lie in the fact that governments with opposing views changed office mid-stream, so to speak.
But that does not mean New Zealand is unable to do anything about it.
Life for the baking industry has not been made any easier by the ineptitude or inexperience of the Minister of Food Safety, Kate Wilkinson, who has argued nothing can be done until a review is carried out of the mandatory requirement, meaning the baking industry is faced with spending millions (it claims) preparing for an implementation which may be cancelled in a few months.
The fact is the Government has always been able to delay the measure for further risk assessment since it is bound to ensure all food is safe for every potential consumer, whatever its benefits might be for a small minority: it has the sovereign duty to do so.
Fortunately, wiser heads or perhaps better advice have now been applied to the problem.
Implementation should certainly be deferred either until the Government is satisfied all concerns have been reasonably satisfied or a regime is put in place to enable bakers to add folate to some specific, but not all, commercial breads - thus leaving the choice where it properly should reside, with consumers.
Much more importantly, women need to follow health guidelines before they fall pregnant if they are not to put their health and that of their babies at risk, and the Government is sending the wrong signal in proposing to use mass medication as a substitute for the widest possible encouragement to take that professional guidance and advice: and Australia is hardly likely to take us to court for it.
