EFSA Sets Dietary Reference Values for Iron and Copper

The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA’s) Panel on Dietetic
Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA Panel) has issued two scientific
opinions deriving dietary reference values (DRVs) for iron and copper.
After estimating whole-body iron losses and absorption values for men
and women, the panel set the population reference intake (PRI) at 11 mg/
day for men and postmenopausal women; infants ages 7 to 11 months;
children ages 7 to 11 years; and boys ages 12 to 17 years. It also established
PRIs of 16 mg/day for premenopausal women; 13 mg/day for girls
ages 12 to 17 years; and 7 mg/day in children ages 1 to 6 years.

Due to the absence of biomarkers indicating copper status as well as
limited data, the NDA Panel only defined adequate intakes (AIs) “based
on mean observed intakes in several European Union (EU) countries,
given that there is no evidence of overt copper deficiency in the European
population.” It has proposed the following AIs for copper: (i) 1.6 mg/day
for men; (ii) 1.5 mg/day for pregnant and lactating women; (iii) 1.3 mg/
day for women; (iv) 0.4 mg/day for infants ages 7 to 11 months; (v) 0.7
mg/day for children ages 1 to 3 years; (vi) 1 mg/day for children ages 3 to
10 years; and (vii) 1.1 mg/day and 1.3 mg/day for girls and boys ages 10
to 18 years, respectively.

Issue 582