Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI)/Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA)

The dietary reference intakes (DRI) and the recommended dietary allowances (RDA) are the amounts of selected nutrients considered adequate to meet the known nutrient needs of practically all healthy people. The DRI/RDA for any nutrient may vary by age and sex. For example, the DRI/RDA for iron for a 15-year-old boy is 11 mg, for a 15-year-old girl 15 mg, and for a 35-year-old man 8 mg.

The daily value (DV) is derived from the 1968 RDA and from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and is displayed on the Nutrition Facts panel found on food labels. The DV usually is the highest amount recommended for a particular nutrient. For example, the DV for iron is 18 mg (the amount recommended for an adult woman). For some nutrients, a DRI/RDA does not exist. In this case, the DV uses a figure known as the daily reference values (DRV) taken from the Dietary Guidelines. Cholesterol is an example of a nutrient that does not have a DRI/RDA, but does have a DV.

The DV helps you understand the nutrient content of food by providing you with the percent of the DV found in one serving of the food. For example, the DV for calcium is 1,000 mg. If one serving of a food contains 260 mg of calcium, the label would say that it contains a DV of 26% for calcium. In other words, one serving gives you 26% of the DV for calcium.

See an illustration of the daily value on nutrition facts.

For more information on the DRI/RDA of foods, visit the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Center Web site at http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/etext/000105.html.