Are there any recommended daily amounts for nutrients and vitamins?

Germany

Most of the EU member states have produced their own quantitative dietary recommendations under a variety of names (e.g. Dietary Reference Values, UK), with values adapted to different population groups (children, adolescents, pregnant women or older people).

At the European level, there is also the EU labelling RDAs, which are values against which vitamins and minerals can be labelled (i.e. % RDA). These RDA are necessary as nutrition labelling is harmonized. These RDA are values for adults and although they are similar to those from each country, as countries differ, they cannot be identical to all.

For more than 50 years, the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) of the National Academy of Sciences has been reviewing nutrition research and defining nutrient requirements for a healthy diet. Until recently, one set of nutrient intake levels reigned supreme: the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs). The conventional RDA is the average daily intake that will meet the nutrient requirement of nearly all healthy people in a specific age and gender category. In the past, the RDA of most nutrients represented the levels needed to prevent deficiency diseases such as rickets (lack of vitamin D) or scurvy (lack of vitamin C).

In the early 1990s, after much consideration, the Food and Nutrition Board undertook the task of revising the RDAs and a new family of nutrient reference values was born —the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs)—.

There are four types of DRI reference values: the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR), the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA), the Adequate Intake (AI), and the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL). The primary goal of having new dietary reference values was not only to prevent nutrient deficiencies, but also to reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as osteoporosis, cancer and cardiovascular disease.

See also :

EUFIC - http://www.eufic.org/pt/heal/mg04.htm

SCF - http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sc/scf/out89.pdf