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)
 Infants 0–6 months 5 5
 Infants  7–12 months 6 6
 Children   1–3 years 8 8
 Children  4–8 years 12 12
 Children 9–13 years 20 20
 Adolescents 14–18 years 25 25
 Adults 19 years and older 30 30
 Pregnancy all ages - 30
 Breast-feeding all 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