Reference intakes food labeling

According to the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA, 1993), it is optional to give information about the contents of tocopherols and tocotrienols in food labeling in the United States. If given, the contents should be compared with the Reference Daily Intakes (RDI) for vitamin E of 20 mg a-tocopherol equivalents (30 IU)/day. In Europe, only significant quantities of vitamins can be declared. This... 

Reference intakes depend on age and gender. For nutritional labelling of foods it is obviously essential to have a single labelling reference value that will permit the consumer to compare the nutrient yields of different foods. Apart from foods aimed at infants and small children, for which age-related reference intakes are used, there are two ways of determining labelling reference values ... 

To use the average requirement for adult men, which in most cases equals the reference intake for women. This is the approach favoured by the Scientific Committee for Food of the European Union but has not yet been adopted in EU labelling legislation. 

Food Labeling Mandatory Nutrients with Their Reference Daily Intake (RDI) Values and Relationships to Human Health and Disease... 

United States regulations on nutrition labeling of foods require that cholesterol content be given and that it be analyzed by GC measurement as shown in the AOAC method, which uses a packed column (Lewis et al., 1996 AOAC, 1990). The reference value, which is a set of recommended nutrient intake levels of cholesterol, is defined as 300 mg. However, the Codex guideline does not request labeling of cholesterol. Cholesterol contents in some foods and foodstuffs determined by GC measurement are summarized in Table Dl.3.3. 

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