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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 13 Jun 2000

Vol. 521 No. 1

Written Answers. - Recommended Dietary Allowances.

Bernard Allen

Ceist:

176 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will take the necessary steps to replace traditional recommended daily allowance for vitamins with more flexible upper safety levels, as recommended by the European Commission. [16437/00]

Recommended dietary allowances are the level of intake of nutrients that, on the basis of scientific knowledge, are judged to be adequate to meet the known nutrient needs of practically all healthy persons. Recommended dietary allowances are prepared by nutritionists in individual countries as a standard against which the nutrients in food eaten by different sections of the community or a whole country can be assessed.

The Irish recommended dietary allowances were updated in 1999, and the EU population reference intake published by the EU scientific committee for food in 1993 formed the basis for reviewing and updating the Irish recommended dietary allowance tables. The updated Irish recommended dietary allowances are in line with the EU dietary recommendations, and are the result of recommendations from a working group of the nutritional sub-committee of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, which was estab lished in 1996 to review Irish recommended dietary allowances.
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