Food and Nutrition Board Report Consistent with
Council for Responsible Nutrition’s Safety Evaluations

WASHINGTON, DC, January 9, 2001 —The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) has evaluated the Food and Nutrition Board’s report on dietary reference intakes (DRI) for micronutrients released to the public today. The Board’s DRI report provides advice on nutrient intakes and can be used by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to update future labeling values for these vitamins and minerals in all consumer food products. The upper limits, one of the DRI values, established in the Food and Nutrition Board’s report are consistent with and supportive of CRN’s long-standing values for safety of these nutrients in CRN’s Vitamin and Mineral Safety of 1997.

"The similarity in the CRN and Food and Nutrition Board’s conclusions illustrates that a balanced evaluation of sound science can predictably lead to outcomes that can be broadly supported by consumers, researchers, industry, and the regulators," said John Cordaro, president and chief executive officer of CRN.

The upper limit is established by a process defined by the Upper Limits Subcommittee of the Food and Nutrition Board, chaired by Dr. Ian Munro, president, Cantox International.

One caution was raised by the author of the Vitamin and Mineral Safety document Dr. John Hathcock, vice president, nutritional and regulatory science of CRN. Hathcock noted, "minor differences between certain Board upper limits and CRN’s recommendations are due to differences in assumptions. For example, the Board’s upper limit on iron is based on ingesting iron on an empty stomach, and CRN’s analysis is based on taking iron with food." In addition, Hathcock noted that "One point of concern is the low recommendations for chromium that are based on the usual intakes in apparently healthy people, rather than the clinical trial data from people with impaired glucose tolerance."

The Food and Nutrition Board’s press release is available on the website:

http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/(ByDocID)/9B84D1026CEDD5FC852569CF0052DC06?OpenDocument

The prepublication copy (in paperback) soon will be available for purchase from the National Academy Press (http://www.nap.edu), with the hardbound copy to follow.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) was founded in 1973 and represents approximately 100 companies in the dietary supplement industry, including bulk ingredient suppliers as well as finished product manufacturers. Members include manufacturers of national brands of dietary supplements as well as several large manufacturers of the store brands available in most supermarkets, drug stores, health food stores, and super stores. CRN members adhere to a strong code of ethics, comply with dosage limits and manufacture dietary supplements to high quality standards under good manufacturing practices.