How to reach a common estimate of high dietary micronutrient intakes for safe addition of vitamins and minerals to foods?

Niels Lyhne Andersen,Inge Tetens

doi:10.3402/fnr.v53i0.1898

Abstract

Background:A central element in establishing maximum amount of micronutrients in fortified foods and supplements is to reach to an agreement on how to estimate high intakes of vitamins and minerals from the European diet.Objective:To examine whether ratios between the 95th percentile and mean intakes of vitamins and minerals show similarities across different countries independent of dietary habits and survey methods and if so, to suggest a simple and pragmatic way to calculate common estimates of high micronutrient intakes from foods.Design:Intake data of selected vitamins and minerals from nine European countries were examined for adult females and males and for children aged 4–10 and 11–17 years. The ratios between the 95th percentile and mean intakes were calculated for each micronutrient, country, and age group.Results:The ratios for each micronutrient follow a fairly regular pattern across countries and survey methods with differences between age groups.The nutrients fall into three categories: nutrients with ratios between 1.45 and 1.58 – energy, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, iron, vitamin B6, niacin, and folate; nutrients with ratios between 1.67 and 1.79 – calcium, selenium, vitamin E, iodine, and copper; nutrients with ratios between 2.08 and 2.32 – vitamin A, vitamin D, and retinol.Conclusion:Sufficiently precise estimates of high micronutrient intakes across European countries can be reached by multiplying the overall average of ratios (P95/mean intakes) for each micronutrient with the corresponding mean intakes from all available dietary surveys in Europe. This approach is a simple and pragmatic way to create common European estimates of high micronutrient intakes from foods.

Highlights

A central element in establishing maximum amount of micronutrients in fortified foods and supplements is to reach to an agreement on how to estimate high intakes of vitamins and minerals from the European diet
The results show that for each nutrient the ratio has approximately the same value from one survey to another, implying that the ratio between high and average intake of micronutrients follows a regular pattern across countries and survey methods
The results of the present study show that the ratio between high and mean intake for each micronutrient is fairly stable from one survey to another

Summary

Introduction

A central element in establishing maximum amount of micronutrients in fortified foods and supplements is to reach to an agreement on how to estimate high intakes of vitamins and minerals from the European diet. Objective: To examine whether ratios between the 95th percentile and mean intakes of vitamins and minerals show similarities across different countries independent of dietary habits and survey methods and if so, to suggest a simple and pragmatic way to calculate common estimates of high micronutrient intakes from foods. Conclusion: Sufficiently precise estimates of high micronutrient intakes across European countries can be reached by multiplying the overall average of ratios (P95/mean intakes) for each micronutrient with the corresponding mean intakes from all available dietary surveys in Europe. This approach is a simple and pragmatic way to create common European estimates of high micronutrient intakes from foods

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion