Little information is available regarding the dietary vitamin B5 intakes and related health consequences in humans. As there are only limited data on the pantothenic acid requirements the European Scientific Committee for Food has not established a dietary reference value (DRV, recommended intake). Average intakes in adults are about 4–7 mg/day, with a range of 3–12 mg/day. Such intakes were considered adequate to prevent deficiency, including during pregnancy and breast-feeding (11).
In 2014, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recommended the adequate intake (AI) of vitamin B5 for adult men and women, including pregnant women, should be set at 5 mg per day. For lactating women, an AI of 7 mg per day was proposed to compensate for pantothenic acid losses through breast milk. For infants over six months, an AI of 3 mg/day was proposed and the AIs for children and adolescents were set at 4 and 5 mg/day (33).
As the U.S. Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) felt the existing scientific evidence was insufficient to calculate a recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for vitamin B5, they set an AI for pantothenic acid in 1998, based on estimated dietary intakes in healthy population groups (12):
| Life Stage | Age | Males: (mg/day) | Females: (mg/day) |
| Infants | 0–6 months | 1.7 | 1.7 |
| Infants | 7–12 months | 1.8 | 1.8 |
| Children | 1–3 years | 2 | 2 |
| Children | 4–8 years | 3 | 3 |
| Children | 9–13 years | 4 | 4 |
| Adolescents | 14–18 years | 5 | 5 |
| Adults | 19 years and older | 5 | 5 |
| Pregnancy | all ages | - | 6 |
| Breast-feeding | all ages | - | 7 |
There is no tolerable upper intake level (UL) for vitamin B5, as there is insufficient human data available to identify adverse effects from high doses of pantothenic acid (12, 13).
For a detailed overview of recommended daily intakes (PRIs/RDAs) of vitamins and minerals for adults derived from different countries and organizations see PDF.
Authored by Dr Peter Engel in 2010, reviewed and revised by Ines Warnke on 29.05.2017
