Earl Baldwin of Bewdleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, in recommending an upper limit for general sale of Vitamin B6 of 10 mg, the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment base this figure on animal data divided by a safety factor of 300, as they stated in their initial report last June, or human data divided by a factor of five, as they have more recently stated in their written evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Agriculture last month.[HL2382]
§ The Minister of State, Department of Health (Baroness Jay of Paddington)The Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment considered both human and animal studies. The animal studies reinforced the evidence from clinical studies in humans, and applications of safety factors to both types of studies led to the same figure for a safe daily intake.
Earl Baldwin of Bewdleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, in stating their preliminary observations on the United States National Academy of Sciences report on a tolerable upper limit for Vitamin B6 that there may be risks of overdosage for vulnerable subpopulations, the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment recognise the risks of underdosage for such groups. [HL2383]
§ Baroness Jay of PaddingtonThe Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment were asked to advise on the safety of high doses of Vitamin B6 and not the nutritional requirements. The Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy advised that the reference nutrient intake (RNI) for Vitamin B6 is 1.4 mg/day. Surveys show that the average intakes of Vitamin B6 in the United Kingdom from food (excluding supplements) are well above the RNI.