A Strategy for Safe Addition of Selected Micronutrients to Foods for Children

For children, voluntary addition of micronutrients to foods must be done without health risk to any of them. This study examined safe maximum levels of vitamin A and C, and calcium for children based on nutrient intake data from the 2001-2002 and 2005 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in Korea, while using the safe strategy for addition of micronutrients to foods suggested by EU. For the respective 2001-2002 and 2005 NHANES data proportions of potentially fortifiable energy intake ranged 0.36-0.40 and 0.31-0.34 and the $95^{th}$ percentile intake of energy were 2,325-3,296 kcal and 2,286-3,814 kcal depending upon age groups. Ninety-fifth percentile intake levels of vitamin A were over or close to UL, even without considering supplement intake for some age groups, which suggest that vitamin A fortification to foods required further consideration. For calcium, 12-14 year old children were the most sensitive group for excessive intake and nutrient fortification to foods. In these children, maximum levels for fortification were 242-290 mg and 484-580 mg with 0.135 and 0.068 proportions of fortified food (PFF) assumed, respectively, without considering calcium intake from supplements. With consideration of calcium intake from both diet and supplement, the maximum levels for fortification were 20-36% of those without supplement intake. The maximum fortification levels of vitamin C were the lowest in 3-5 year old children, showing 77-187 mg and 68-164 mg with and without supplement intake, respectively. These results suggest that the model used for risk assessment in this study can be used to help risk managers to set maximum levels for safe addition of micronutrients to foods.

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