Vitamin B7 // Biotin

Vitamin B7 Intake Recommendations

Only little is known regarding the amount of dietary biotin required to promote optimal health or prevent chronic disease/deficiency.

As biotin requirement cannot be accurately estimated, the European Scientific Committee for Food defined a biotin reference range for adults of 15–100 micrograms (mcg)/day (25)

In 2014, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recommended the adequate intake (AI) of biotin for adults and pregnant women should be set at 40 mcg/day – adding that for lactating women an additional 5 mcg/day over and above the AI for adults is proposed. For infants, the amount provided by breastmilk is considered adequate, therefore for infants older than 6 months an AI of 6 mcg/day was extrapolated from the breastmilk intake. Based on observed intakes in the EU, the AIs for children aged 1 to 3 and 4 to 10 years were set at 20 and 25 mcg/day, respectively. For adolescents the figure was set at 35 mcg/day (47).

The U.S. Food and Nutrition Board felt that the existing scientific evidence was insufficient to calculate a RDA for vitamin B7, and set an  AI in 1998, which should meet the dietary requirement (see Table) (1).

Life Stage  Age Males: (mcg/day)Females: (mcg/day)
 Infants0–6 months55
 Infants 7–12 months66
 Children  1–3 years88
 Children 4–8 years1212
 Children9–13 years2020
 Adolescents14–18 years2525
 Adults19 years and older3030
 Pregnancyall ages-30
 Breast-feedingall ages-35

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 28.06.2017