Labeling, reference intakes

U.S.-RDA U.S., 1973 Reference intakes for labeling purposes, the highest RDA value for any population group see Table 1.11... 

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. 

Labels have to avoid being misleading to the consumer. As an example some academic chemists dislike the practice of referring to substances such as sorbitol as polyols and would prefer them to be called sugar alcohols. The confusion that this would cause would be very unfortunate. Some of those who need to control their intake of small carbohydrates would be wondering if these substances are sugar or not ... 

The risk assessment comprises an effect assessment (hazard identification and hazard characterization) and an exposure assessment. The principles for the effect assessment of the active substances are in principle similar to those for existing and new chemicals and are addressed in detail in Chapter 4. Based on the outcome of the effect assessment, an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) and an Acceptable Operator Exposure Level (AOEL) are derived, usually from the NOAEL by applying an overall assessment factor addressing differences between experimental effect assessment data (usually from animal studies) and the real human exposure situation, taking into account variability and uncertainty for further details the reader is referred to Chapter 5. As a part of the effect assessment, classification and labeling of the active substance according to the criteria laid down in Directive 67/548/EEC (EEC 1967) is also addressed (Section 2.4.1.8). 

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. 

Administration of about 1 mg of Zn would appear to be acceptable compromise in studies with adult subjects consuming about 15 mg/day of natural zinc. However, it might be necessary, or desirable, to enrich the diet or a test meal with a second isotope (, J). Since Zn cannot be measured by neutron activation, Zn is a potential candidate for this second tracer. However, the natural abundance of this isotope is high (18.6 atomic %) so that the feasibility of its application at physiological intake levels must first be established. In situations where Zn is used as a label, Zn serves as the reference isotope because the precision of measurement of Zn is better than for Zn. 

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... 

The term dose—response in environmental epidemiology is typically understood to mean that quantitative relationship in which adverse effect severity and multiplicity increase in proportion to the intensity of exposure or dose indexed externally (intake/uptake quantities) or internally (exposure biomarkers). In the case of experimental animal exposures, reference is often to the administered dose, but biomarkers can also be available. Dose—response has also been employed to denote impacts at some selected effect level of a toxicant in terms of increasing affected fractions of some population as exposure increases. In this case, a dose—population response label is more precise. 

Iron consists of four stable isotopes, Fe, Fe, Fe, and Fe, with average natural abundances of 5.84, 91.75, 2.1, and 0.28%, respectively. Because most functional body iron is present in blood, which is easily accessible to sampling, studies on iron absorption and utilization are nowadays mostly based on the incorporation and subsequent isotopic analysis of iron in red blood cells [9]. As explained earlier, the amount of iron isotopic label in circulation that has been absorbed can be assessed either by estimating blood volume and circulating iron [44] or by injection of a second isotopic label after test meal intake that serves as a reference [45-47]. 

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

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