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Dietary reference intakes for germany, austria, switzerland

Current nutritional recommendations not only take into account the amount of vitamins ingested with food, but also include the body's own vitamin production. This is particularly important for vitamin D. For some other vitamins, reduced metabolic processes or the taking of particular drugs can make it necessary to supplement the diet. Depending on life style and age group, there may thus be a need to supply specific vitamins.

In order to comply with current guidelines on declarations for vitaminised food products, it is essential for manufacturers of such preparations to have information about the stability of the ingredients. A range of analytical procedures are available to determine the vitamin content as part of a comprehensive quality control to the end of the shelf life. These include standard microbiological and chromatographic methods, but also ELISA and microtiter systems as well as powerful multi-methods using HPLC-MS/MS.

In Switzerland, extended transition periods currently apply to the labelling of vitaminised food products, because current rules are to be adapted to EU legislation in the near future.

In her article published in Lebensmittel-Technologie 06/2012 [in German], Susanne Täuber provides an overview of the declaration and quality control of vitaminised food products.

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