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
