HOME › FORMULAS › INGREDIENTS › FOLATE
Folate (Vitamin B9)
Eight authorised EU function claims, and one of the ingredients the engine is not allowed to serve on its own. Folate at a high dose can correct the anaemia of a vitamin B12 deficiency while the nerve damage underneath it carries on, so our rule is that folate never enters a plan without B12 beside it.
WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY
Eight function claims. All of them authorised.
These are the eight function claims our file records for folate under Regulation 432/2012. We do not paraphrase them into something that sounds stronger. All eight carry the same condition: the product has to qualify as a source of folate, which means at least 15% of the 200 µg NRV. Both of our folate doses clear that by a wide margin.These are the eight function claims our file records for folate under Regulation 432/2012. All eight carry the same condition: the product has to qualify as a source of folate, at least 15% of the 200 µg NRV.
Our file also records an authorised disease-risk-reduction claim for folate on neural tube defects. It may only be used for women of childbearing age, and it has to say that the effect comes with 400 µg of additional folate a day. None of our formulas uses it, so we do not put it on a label, and we do not put it on this page as a promise. The pregnancy claim we list above is about maternal tissue growth, nothing more. There is also no authorised claim for cognition, for mood or for homocysteine as a cardiovascular endpoint, however the meta-analysis in our sources is read elsewhere.
WHY 5-MTHF
The claim is the same. The conversion step is not.
Every folate source carries the same authorised claims, so the form is not a claim argument and we do not use it as one. Folic acid, the synthetic form, has to be converted by DHFR and then by MTHFR before the body can use it. The C677T variant of MTHFR cuts that enzyme's activity by 30 to 70%, which is why the clinical preference on our file is for L-methylfolate given directly. It is water soluble, neutral in taste, works best between pH 5 and 7, and is sensitive to light and oxygen; our file records it as not stable in liquid.
Cheap, and the form the EFSA upper limit is written against. Needs two enzyme steps before it is usable, and above 400 µg a day it starts to leave unmetabolised folic acid in plasma, whose long-term effects are not settled.
Polyglutamates from food. Not a supplement format, and the EFSA upper limit does not apply to them at all — it is written for synthetic folic acid only.
L-methylfolate calcium. Already in the active form, so it does not depend on MTHFR, and our file notes it does not mask B12 with the same intensity as folic acid. It costs more, and we accept that.
There is no authorised claim that says methylfolate works better than folic acid, and we are not going to imply one. The MTHFR argument is a mechanism documented in our sources, and our own file still records the preferred form as unresolved in one place and settled in another. That is a reason to include it, not a permission to promise anything.There is no authorised claim that says methylfolate works better than folic acid, and we are not going to imply one. It is a mechanism argument, not a claim.
WHERE IT APPEARS
Two of the twenty-nine carry folate.
Both are morning formulas and both carry B12, which is not a coincidence: the engine rule says folate and B12 travel together or folate does not travel at all. Added up, the two doses come to 1,200 µg, which is why they cannot simply both be switched on.
THE CEILING
1,000 µg a day, across everything you take.
The EFSA upper limit is written for synthetic folic acid, not for folate from food, and it applies to your total rather than to each formula on its own. Germany's BfR proposes a far more conservative 200 µg a day for supplements; France's ANSES sits at 1,000 µg for diet and supplement combined. We schedule against the 1,000 µg figure and record that the German number is lower than either of our doses. The 1,000 µg limit is for adults; for under-18s the limits are lower (200–800 µg depending on age), and VION is for adults only.The EFSA upper limit is written for synthetic folic acid and applies to your total, not to each formula on its own. Germany's BfR proposes a far more conservative 200 µg a day. Limits for under-18s are lower (200–800 µg by age); VION is for adults only.
The rule on file holds a CORE folate dose at 400 µg or below, to leave room for an additional pre-conception dose.
Engine rule R6: if folate is in your stack, B6, B12 and folate all have to be present. Folate is never assigned without B12. Our file flags people over 50, vegetarians and vegans, and anyone on metformin or proton-pump inhibitors as the groups to watch most closely.
Our file caps folate added up across formulas at 1,000 µg a day, and rule R11 blocks adding any formula that would take an ingredient past its EFSA upper limit. B12 + folate is designed to hand over to a maintenance formula, such as Cognition & memory, after 12 weeks, not to run alongside it.
WHAT IT REACTS WITH
Documented pairs, not hunches.
Folate is one of the 140 ingredients in our library, so it has 139 possible partners. Eight are documented so far, out of the 443 pairs on file: activated charcoal, white clay, psyllium husk, vitamin B12, vitamin B6, iron, L-methionine and zinc.
Charcoal adsorbs folate in the gut and can take 30 to 90% of it out of play; it never shares a dose with folate and is separated by at least three hours. White clay is separated by at least two hours, psyllium husk by at least one.
B12 regenerates 5-MTHF, so the two are a pair rather than a choice. B6 completes the trio that our sources link to homocysteine metabolism, and is held at 5 mg or less per dose to respect its own limit.
Our file records iron as co-formulable with folate in a blood-formation blend for mixed anaemias, always with B12, and methionine as one to co-formulate in methylation, liver-function and cognitive blends, since it shares the same cycle. Neither of our two folate formulas contains iron or methionine today.
At high folate doses (above 800 µg a day) folate may slightly reduce zinc absorption; at our CORE dose it is not considered relevant. With a known zinc deficiency the two are separated by 2 hours. Our file still marks this pair for review.
Folate antagonises methotrexate used as an antineoplastic — an oncology conversation, not ours. Trimethoprim, sulfasalazine and pyrimethamine work against it; anticonvulsants such as phenytoin, carbamazepine, valproate and phenobarbital interact in both directions; oral contraceptives and cholestyramine lower it. If you have, or have had, cancer — or colorectal lesions — talk to your oncologist first: our sources record conflicting preliminary data on high folate and colorectal cancer. Macrocytic anaemia of unknown cause is a reason to wait until a B12 deficiency has been ruled out. Rare hypersensitivity reactions are recorded; stop and seek advice if they appear.
443 of the 9,730 possible pairs in our library are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not "safe", they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge. One of folate's eight, the pair with zinc, is marked in our own file as a discrepancy still to be resolved, so it is on this page as unsettled rather than left off it.443 of the 9,730 possible pairs in our library are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not safe, they are simply unchecked. The folate–zinc pair is marked in our file as still to be resolved.
SOURCES
Everything on this page, with its reference.
Reviewed by VION nutrition team · last reviewed 16 September 2026Read the introduction to Folic Acid →
140 INGREDIENTS · 64 IN USE TODAY
Every one of them has a page like this.
What it is, what we are allowed to say about it, which formulas carry it, what it reacts with and where each of those statements comes from. No proprietary blends, no hidden amounts.