EURRECA—Framework for Aligning Micronutrient Recommendations

Abstract

There is currently no standard approach for deriving micronutrient recommendations, and large variations exist across Europe, causing confusion among consumers, food producers, and policy makers. More aligned information could influence dietary behaviors and potentially lead to a healthier population. Funded by the European Commission, EURRECA (EURopean micronutrient RECommendations Aligned) has developed methods and applications to guide Nutrient Recommendation Setting Bodies through the process of setting micronutrient reference values. The EURRECA approach is crystallized into its framework that outlines a standard process for deriving and using dietary reference values for micronutrients in a transparent, systematic, and scientific way. The 9 activities of the framework can be clustered into four stages (i) defining the problem, (ii) monitoring and evaluating, (iii) deriving dietary reference values, and (iv) using dietary reference values in policy making. The EURRECA framework should not be interpreted as a prescriptive description of a linear process, but as a structured guide for checking that all issues essential for deriving requirements have at least been considered.

Keywords:

• Micronutrient
• recommendations
• framework
• Europe
• dietary reference values
• transparency

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study has been carried out with partial financial support from the Commission of the European Communities, specific RTD Programme “Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources,” within the 6th Framework Programme (Contract No. FP6-036196-2 EURRECA: EURopean micronutrient RECommendations Aligned). This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission and in no way anticipates the future policy in this area. The authors would like to thank Lada Timotijevic who gave substantive input to an earlier draft of this article and Sergi Migallon for administrative support. The preparation of this manuscript was coordinated by Mandy Claessens from ILSI Europe and the copy editing by EUFIC.