FSSAI Issues Note Related To Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) For Functional Foods

The Food Safety and Standards (Health Supplements, Nutraceuticals, Food for Special Dietary, Food for Special Medical Purpose, Functional Food and Novel Food Regulation, 2016 specifies the use of nutrientsup to a limit of one RDA⁺ specified by ICMR(Indian Council of Medical Research).If the standards are not provided in ICMR reports, CODEX standards can be applied.[⁺Recommended Dietary Allowance]

Regarding this, there is a lot of confusion in the whole country, manufacturers, and nutritional consultants. Several questions are pouring to FSSAI including all the mentioned stakeholders and even regulatory bodies about the actual RDA values to refer. So, the scientific bodies at FSSAI decided to make a document which collaborated the RDA values of micronutrients from the references of ICMR and CODEX.

Recommended RDA of Vitamins for Indians:

Gender	Age group	Vitamin A (mg/day)		Thiamin (mg/day)	Riboflavin (mg/day)	Niacin (mg/dl)	Pyridoxine (mg/day)	Vitamin C (mg/day)
		Retinol	b-carotene
Infants	0-6 months 6-12months	_ 350	_ 2800	0.2 0.3	0.3 0.4	710mg/kg 650mg/kg	0.1 0.4	25
Children	1-3 years 4-6 years 7-9 years	400 400 600	3200 4800	0.5 0.7 0.8	0.6 0.8 1.0	8 11 13	0.9 0.9 1.6	40
Boys	10-12 years	600	4800	1.1	1.3	15	1.6	40
Girls	10-12 years	600	4800	1.0	1.2	13	1.6	40
Boys	13-15 years	600	4800	1.4	1.6	16	2.0	40
Girls	13-15 years	600	4800	1.2	1.4	14	2.0	40
Boys	16-17 years	600	4800	1.5	1.8	17	2.0	40
Girls	16-17 years	600	4800	1.0	1.2	14	2.0
Men	Sedentary work Moderate work Heavy work	600	4800	1.2 1.4 1.7	1.4 1.6 2.1	16 18 21	2.0	40
Women	Sedentary work Moderate work Heavy work Pregnancy Lactation	600   800 950	4800   6400 7600	1 1.1 1.4 +0.2 +0.3	1.1 1.3 1.7 +0.3 +0.4	12 14 16 +4 +5	2.0     2.5 2.5	40     60 80

 RDA for Energy, Protein, Fat, Calcium and Minerals for Indians:

Gender	Age group	Body weight (kg)	Net Energy (kcal/d)	Proteins (g/day)	Fats	Calcium (mg/day)	Iron (mg/day)	Zinc (mg/day)	Magnesium (mg/day)
Men	Sedentary work Moderate work Heavy work	60	2320 2730 3490	60	25 30 40	600	17 21	12	340
Women	Sedentary work Moderate work Heavy work Pregnancy Lactation	55	1900 2230 2850 +350 +600	55 +23 +19	30 30	600 1200 1200	35 21	10 12	310
Infants	0-6 months 6-12months	5.4 8.4	92 kcal/kg/d* 80 kcal/kg/d*	1.16g/kg/day	_ 19	500	46µg/kg/day 5		30
Children (Boys+Girls)	1-3 years 4-6 years 7-9 years	12.9 18.0 25.1	1060 1350 1690	16.7 20.1 29.5	27 25 30	600	09 13 16	5 7 8	45 50 70 100
Boys	10-12 years	34.3	2190	39.9	35	800	21	9	120
Girls	10-12 years	35	2010	40.4	35	800	27	9	160
Boys	13-15 years	47.6	2750	54.3	45	800	32	11	165
Girls	13-15 years	46.6	2330	51.9	40	800	27	11	210
Boys	16-17 years	55.4	3020	61.5	50	800	28	12	195
Girls	16-17 years	52.1	2440	55.5	35	800	26	12	235

RDA of more nutrients not included in the above table:

S. no.	Vitamin	RDA
1.	Vitamin D*	400(IU)
2.	Vitamin E*	7.5-10 mg α-tocopherol
3.	Vitamin K*(K1,K2)	55 µg
4.	Biotin**	30µg
5.	Pantothenic acid**	5 mg

Sl no.	Mineral	RDA
1.	Chloride#(AI)	§  Children 1 to 3 years:1500 mg §  Children 4 to 8 years:1900 mg §  Men & Women (9 years and above): 1800 to 2300 mg §  Pregnant & Lactating women: 2300 mg
2.	Chromium*(AI)	50µg
3.	Copper*(AI)	1.7 mg
4.	Iodine*	§  Children (1 to 5 years):90 µg §  Children(6 to 12 years): 120 µg §  Adolescents and adults(≥13 years):150 µg §  Pregnant & Lactating women: 250 µg
5.	Manganese*(AI)	4.0 mg
6.	Molybdenum**	45µg
7.	Phosphorus*	§  Children(1 to 9 years):600 mg §  Boys & Girls(10-17 years): 800 mg §  Men & Women: 600 mg §  Pregnant & Lactating women:1200 mg
8.	Potassium*	§  Children(1 to 3 years):1100 mg §  Children(4 to 6 years):1550 mg §  Men:3750 mg §  Women:3225 mg
9.	Selenium*	40µg
10.	Sodium*	§  Children(1-3 years):590 mg §  Children(4-6 years): 1010 mg §  Men:2100 mg §  Women:1900 mg

*ICMR Nutrient requirements and RDA for Indians-A Report of the Expert Group of ICMR, 2010.

** Codex (cac/GL 2 -1985 Guidelines on nutrition labelling

Where the age-wise RDAs are available then RDA values for men and women (sedentary work) may be considered as standards reference or the single value can be taken for all age groups. The Food Safety and Standards (Health Supplements, Nutraceuticals, Food for Special Dietary, Food for Special Medical Purpose, Functional Food and Novel Food Regulation, 2016 is not applicable to infants up to the age of 24 months. RDA referred here in the document for the age of 0 to 24 months will not be applicable to the said regulations.

Conversion units mentioned in the Report of Expert Committee of ICMR

• Vitamin A:1 µg=3.33 IU
• Vitamin D: 1 µg= 40 IU
• Vitamin E: 1 mg= 1.5 IU d-alpha-tocopherol, or 1.1 IU dl-alpha-tocopherol
• Folic acid: 1 µg=1.7 DFE(Dietary Folate Equivalent)

This reference RDA is effective till authorities release thenew RDA proposed by ICMR.

References:

1. Note_Dietary_Allowance_27_02_2019.pdf.Available at: https://archive.fssai.gov.in/dam/jcr…/Note_Dietary_Allowance_27_02_2019.pdf. Accessible on: 03.07.2019.

2. NIN Working group. Dietary guidelines for Indians-A manual. Second Edition 2011.Available at: http://ninindia.org/DietaryGuidelinesforNINwebsite.pdf. Accessible on: 03.07.2019