The conference report from The Council for Responsible Nutrition-International’s (CRN-I), fourth scientific symposium, held on 1 November, 2013, in Kronberg, Germany, has been published in the peer-reviewed, scientific journal, European Journal of Nutrition.

The 2013 symposium entitled, “Bioactives: Qualitative Nutrient Values for Life-stage Groups?” explored why it is important to have a process for bioactives similar to that of traditional nutrients that have dietary reference intake (DRI) values. Nearly 50 distinguished members of the international scientific and regulatory community representing Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Sudan, Switzerland, Tunisia, the U.K., the U.S. and other countries, convened to hear from nine experts about the science behind bioactivesand potential policy issues.

Bioactives are constituents in foods or dietary supplements, other than those needed to meet basic human nutritional needs, which are responsible for changes in health status.

“There was consensus among our symposium presenters of the value of developing a process to evaluate the strength of the science behind bioactive intakes and their respective links to health conditions,” said James C. Griffiths, Ph.D., vice president, scientific and international affairs, CRN-I.“Standards would then be set for this research, which would facilitate studies being compared across laboratories. Moving forward, if that science base were combined with a recommended intake value, we could assess whether or not populations at various life-stages were meeting recommendations.”

Dr. Griffiths explained why this process is needed, stating, “There is substantial scientific evidence supporting enhanced health and reduced disease risk for certain classes of bioactives, but right now, there’s no formal evaluation process to inform policymaking, research or those consumers who are increasingly purchasing foods containing bioactives.”

The report, co-authored by Dr. Griffiths along with the symposium presenters and CRN consultant John Hathcock, Ph.D., is available on the CRN-I website.