Scientific Principles on the Revision and Addition of the Codex Nutrient Reference Values for Food Labelling Purposes

There has been a need to update the current Codex nutrient reference values (NRVs) which had been established following the Helsinki Consultation in 1988. The main purposes of NRVs are to help consumers compare the nutrient content of different food products and estimate the usefulness of a food product in terms of its percentage contribution to the overall healthful diets. The establishment of Codex NRVs for labelling purposes is intended to facilitate the goals of protecting consumers' health and ensuring fair practices in food trade. When revising the Codex NRVs several issues are needed to discussed, which are: 1) Consideration of population groups whether to have one set of NRVs for general population or to have several sets of NRVs for each population groups, 2) Determination of scope of nutrients such as what nutrients to include and what reference values to choose and 3) Development of principles for establishing NRVs such as the selection of suitable reference values among many including recommended intake/recommended dietary allowances, estimated average requirement and upper levels to extract NRVs. This paper will discuss the above issues and the inputs and efforts that the Korean Nutrition Society had put into to carry out the project, "International Collaboration on the Revision and Addition of the Codex Nutrient Reference Values for Food Labelling Purposes," and to ascertain relevant scientific principles and evidences that are utilized for establishment and revision of the Codex NRVs.

The Scope of Population Groups and Nutrients for Codex Nutrient Reference Values

The purposes of this study were to establish the scope of population groups to be set and nutrients to be included for Codex Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs). Examination of a variety of documents and reports on the principles of scientific evidence was gone through to choose representative groups from a variety of population groups and kinds of nutrients for setting Codex NRVs. Also, hearings from the groups of NRVs expertise has been formed and was gone through by e-working process. The differences of food and foods being consumed in general and by specific population groups and limited actual space on packages for food labeling were considered. This paper suggest the options on the scope of population groups to be set and nutrients to be included for Codex NRVs on the basis of the above procedures. Also, the advantages and disadvantages of these options are commented when the options are applied for establishment and revision of the Codex NRVs.

Application of Dietary Reference Intakes for Codex Nutrient Reference Values

Codex Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs) were based on the 1988 Helsinki report and a single set of NRVs was established for the general population over 3 years for the purpose of food labeling in 1993. Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) with new concepts were developed in many countries recently. Hence there has been broad discussion regarding establishment of new NRVs using DRIs, which include estimated average requirement (EAR), recommended intake (RI or RDA), adequate intake (AI), and tolerable upper intake level (UL) in the world. This study was carried out to review various possible values for Codex NRVs such as population-weighted EAR, population-weighted RDA, and population-based RDA. The values were simulated using DRIs and population distribution of Korea, USA, Japan, Philippines, Germany and England, and compared to the current Codex values and the highest RDA and the lowest UL among populations with different life-stage. Since population weighted/based values are necessary to be updated according to the population changes and are different across countries, inconsistency can be a serious barrier in international transactions. For some of nutrients such as vitamin A and zinc, values based on population-based RDA or the highest RDA were higher than the lowest UL. Therefore, careful considerations should be given before establishing Codex NRVs.