A balanced diet is one that provides adequate amounts of energy and nutrients for health and well-being. Your dietary requirements can vary with gender, height, weight, age, medical conditions and how much activity/ exercise you do. It is important to note that there is no one set of recommendations that will suit every individual person. This means that some people may need to eat more and others less. Typically, men require slightly more nutrients than women with the exception of salt and fibre.

Our focus is on the recommended nutrient intakes of Vitamins & Minerals – crucial to the body’s function and wellbeing, but do not provide energy. Depending on where you are, these informations can be found either on the front or the back of the label of your food and beverage either as:

• Guideline Daily Amount (GDA)
• Reference Intake (RI)
• Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs)
• Adequate Intakes (AIs)
• Daily Value (DV)
• Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs)
• Daily Intake Guide (DI)
• Dietary Reference Values (DRV)
• Recommended Nutrients Intakes (RNIs)

In the EU, the framework are typically based on scientific advice on nutrient intakes. The 1993 opinion of the Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) formed today’s foundation of the European Community’s reference intakes for energy and certain nutrients.

Extracted from Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011, the below DRIs are the complete set of nutrient recommendations and reference values, serving as a basis for reference values in food labelling and for establishing food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG). For comparison purposes, we have also added the recommendations from:

• The World Health Organization (WHO);
• National Health and Medical Research Council for Australia and New Zealand;
• US’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA);
• Japan’s National Health and Nutrition;
• and Nordic Co-operation’s (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and land) Nordic Nutrition Recommendations.

Reference:

World Health Organisation (WHO): Human Vitamin and Mineral Requirements (2001)

Regulation (EU): No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2011)

European Food Safety Authority (EFSA): Dietary reference values and dietary guidelines

Australia and New Zealand: National Health and Medical Research Council: Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand (2015)

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA): Labeling & Nutrition (2013)

Japan: National Institute of Health and Nutrition: Dietary Reference Intakes for Japanese (2010)

Norden: Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (2012)

Please note that these are frequently reviewed and updated to ensure that the guidelines are underpinned by the latest available knowledge.

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