Guideline Daily Amount

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The English term Guideline Daily Amount (GDA, dt. About guideline for daily intake ) refers to guideline values ​​for the daily intake of energy and certain ingredients via food by humans. These guide values ​​are used as a reference value for the voluntary labeling of prepackaged foods in order to be able to give consumers information about the intake of food components that is associated with the consumption of a reference portion of this food. Here you have in particular the supply of energy and substances such. B. Sugar , fat , saturated fatty acids and table salt ( sodium ) in view, the excessive consumption of which could be detrimental to health. However, the labeling of prepackaged foods is legally subject to the European Union's Food Information Regulation , whereby the information according to GDA is only possible in addition.

The GDA labeling system was developed by the Association of the European Food Industry FoodDrinkEurope ( FDE , until 2011 Confédération des Industries Agro-Alimentaires de l'Union Européenne , CIAA ), which also set the benchmarks. For this purpose, the recommendations of studies from EURODIET were used as far as possible , a project funded by the European Commission with the aim of developing scientifically based Europe-wide dietary recommendations as a basis for European nutrition and health policy. Since EURODIET does not provide any reference values ​​for the energy supply, the CIAA working group has defined reference values ​​for this itself.

The simplified labeling takes place in addition to the nutritional labeling of food in accordance with Directive 90/496 / EEC (implemented nationally in Germany by the Nutritional Labeling Ordinance, NKV), which generally regulates the nutrition-related information in the trade with food. In Germany, the information on the GDA labeling is shown in small barrel-shaped fields on the food packaging.

The CIAA guidelines are shown in the table below.

nutrient Energy-% Women Men
energy 100% 8,374 kJ (= 2,000 kcal ) 10,467 kJ (= 2,500 kcal)
protein 10% 50 g 60 g
carbohydrates 60% 270 g 340 g
while total sugar ( sugar ) 90 g 110 g
fat 30% 70 g 80 g
thereby saturated fatty acids 20 g 30 g
with monounsaturated fatty acids 34 g 29 g
with polyunsaturated fatty acids 16 g 21 g
 - Omega-6 fatty acids 14 g 18 g
 - omega-3 fatty acids 2.2 g 2.7 g
   - linolenic acid 2.0 g 2.5 g
   - Eicosapentaenoic acid / docosahexaenoic acid 0.2 g 0.2 g
Fiber 25 g 25 g
Sodium ( salt ) 2.4 g (6 g) 2.4 g (6 g)

The data on which the table is based enables a simplified nutritional labeling: for example, one portion of tortelloni (200 g) contains 3.3 g of saturated fatty acids. With reference to the GDA of 20 g (the value for women is always used), this corresponds to a percentage of 17% of the recommended intake. To simplify matters, the percentages are always rounded to whole numbers.

criticism

The GDA labeling is controversial.

  • The actual energy turnover of an individual and the resulting amount of energy required is made up of the basic turnover and the output turnover . The basal metabolic rate already varies between the different groups of people (children, adolescents, pregnant women, breastfeeding women, older people and sick people) and, depending on the activity, the output turnover also shows considerable fluctuations (see construction workers at -5 ° C with office work). The German Nutrition Society (DGE) criticizes the calculation of the energy intake as not being representative.
  • The DGE also criticizes the indication of a percentage, this does not reveal whether a high value or a low value is desirable.
  • The DGE also criticizes that the derivation of the guideline values ​​does not consistently withstand a scientific test.
  • Foodwatch describes the GDA labeling as "incomprehensible" and calls for the introduction of traffic light labeling . Because of this structure, the Foodwatch organization calls EUFIC “the who's who of international food companies” and questions the credibility of EUFIC studies. Such a study is intended, for example, to influence a current legislative process in order to prevent the EU- wide introduction of traffic light labeling of foods and even to ban them on a national basis.
  • The organization also criticizes the definition of the size of a serving.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eurodiet core report, University of Crete, School of Medicine. (English; PDF; 130 kB).
  2. ↑ Rationale for the recommended values ​​for the daily intake suggested by the CIAA ( Memento of May 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
  3. ↑ a b German Society for Nutrition e. V. (Ed.): "Statement by the German Society for Nutrition eV in the application of the" Guideline Daily Amount "(GDA) in the voluntary labeling of processed foods . October 2007, p. 10 ( dge.de [PDF]).
  4. ↑ GfK study shows: traffic light works, GDA confused. In: foodwatch.de. foodwatch e. V., June 15, 2009, accessed February 13, 2015 (press releases).
  5. ↑ http://www.foodwatch.de/kampagnen__themen/ampelkennzeichnung/studien/index_ger.html
  6. ↑ "Consumers demand fat traffic light", Spiegel-online September 16, 2008