EFSA Maintains 1993 Dietary Reference Values for Vitamin K

23 May 2017 --- The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has decided to maintain the dietary reference values (DRVs) for vitamin K set in 1993. During a 6-week public consultation launched earlier this year to collect feedback from the scientific community and any interested parties on the draft Scientific Opinion on DRVs for vitamin K, EFSA received 43 different submissions with comments from 10 interested parties. After reviewing and addressing these comments, it decided to maintain the 1993 DRVs.

The draft Scientific Opinion was prepared by the EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA Panel) and endorsed by the Panel for public consultation at its Plenary meeting on 25 October 2016. 

The NDA Panel defined daily adequate intakes (AIs) for vitamin K as follows:

• 10 mg for infants aged 7-11 months.
• 12 mg for children aged 1-3 years.
• 20 mg for children aged 4-6.
• 30 mg for children aged 7-10.
• 45 mg for children aged 11-14.
• 65 mg for adolescents aged 15-17 and
• 70 mg for adults including pregnant and lactating women.

Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin that plays an important role in blood coagulation and bone mineralization. It naturally occurs in food as phylloquinone (vitamin K1) and menaquinones (vitamin K2). Low vitamin K intake is associated with a tendency to bleeding due to a low activity of blood coagulation factors. Food sources of vitamin K include dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, kale and Brussels sprouts.