ADI value

The ADI value (Acceptable Daily Intake) quantifies the daily amount of foreign matter in food that a person can ingest over a lifetime without a health risk.

The ADI value is given in milligrams per kilogram body weight and is used for e.g. food additives and pesticide residues.

ADI values are usually based on feeding experiments with rats or mice. The animals are given a diet with varying proportions of the substance under investigation. The aim is to determine the highest level at which no health effect is observed. This No Observable Effect Level (NOEL) is divided by a safety factor to give the ADI value.

The safety factor (usually 100) takes into account various incalculable factors:

• extrapolation of the NOEL value from trial animals to humans,

• individual differences – both between the trial animals and in humans,

• possible unknown interactions between different additives.

Under certain circumstances, the safety factor can be increased; it can also be lower if the substance in question is a natural component of human food.

ADI values are set by international panels of experts – e.g. the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the WHO/FAO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA).