Following a request from the European Commission, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) derived Dietary Reference Values (DRVs) for vitamin B6.

Vitamin B6 is a water-soluble vitamin that plays an important role in the human body, for example by contributing to the body’s energy metabolism, the normal functioning of the nervous system and the red blood cell formation. Foods that contain vitamin B6 include fish, poultry, liver, potatoes and non-citrus fruit.

EFSA set daily population reference intakes (PRIs) of vitamin B6 as follows:

• 0.3 mg for infants aged 7-11 months
• 0.6 to 1.4 mg for children aged 1-14 years
• 1.7 mg for men and boys & 1.6 mg for women and girls aged 15-17 years
• 1.8 mg for pregnant women and 1.7 mg for lactating women

• EFSA considers that plasma pyridoxal 50 -phosphate (PLP) concentration is the biomarker of status suitable for deriving Dietary Reference Values for vitamin B6. Considering that a plasma PLP concentration of 30 nmol/L, as a population mean, is indicative of an adequate vitamin B6 status, EFSA proposes to use this cut-off value to set Average Requirements (ARs).

ARs serve as a basis for deriving Population Reference Intakes (PRIs) for adults and children assuming a coefficient of variation of 10%.

The new data establishing an AR of vitamin B6 for women (1.3 mg/day) result in a PRI of 1.6 mg/day. These data were used to extrapolate ARs for men, children, infants, as well as for pregnant and lactating women, and to calculate PRIs for all age groups. Thus, for men, the AR of 1.5 mg/day is derived and a PRI of 1.7 mg/day is set. For all infants aged 7–11 months, an Adequate Intake of 0.3 mg/day is set, averaging the results of two extrapolation approaches based on an allometric scaling. For all children, ARs are derived from adult ARs using an allometric scaling and growth factors. For children of both sexes aged 1–14 years, ARs range between 0.5 and 1.2 mg/day. For children aged 15–17 years, the Panel derives the same ARs as for adults. PRIs for children aged 1–17 years range between 0.6 and 1.7 mg/day. Extrapolation of ARs by an allometric scaling considered differences in reference body weight. For pregnant and lactating women, additional requirements are considered, based on the uptake of vitamin B6 by the fetal and maternal tissues and the losses through breast milk, and PRIs of 1.8 and 1.7 mg/day, respectively, are derived.