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Zinc: the daily reference intake

Zinc is the one reference intake in this table that is not a single number. EFSA publishes it as a range against how much phytate the diet contains: 9.4 to 16.3 mg a day for men and 7.5 to 12.7 mg for women, because phytate in wholegrains and legumes binds zinc and stops it being absorbed.

These are published population reference values, not a diagnosis and not a prescription. A reference intake describes what covers a healthy group; it cannot tell you your own status, and no page can. Pregnancy, chronic illness, medicines and malabsorption all change the picture — take those questions to a doctor, midwife, pharmacist or dietitian.

Zinc by age, sex and life stage

Zinc is the only nutrient here whose reference intake depends on the rest of the diet. The rows show the value at a low phytate intake; the phytate table below gives the full published range.

The phytate axis

Phytate — inositol hexaphosphate — is the phosphorus store of seeds, and it binds zinc into a complex the human gut cannot break. The more phytate a diet contains, the more zinc has to be eaten to absorb the same amount. EFSA therefore published four reference intakes per sex, at phytate intakes of 300, 600, 900 and 1 200 mg a day.

The low end corresponds to a diet built on animal foods, refined grain and low-phytate vegetables. The high end corresponds to a diet built on wholegrain bread, legumes, nuts and seeds — which is otherwise the diet everybody is being told to eat. That tension is real and it is why the figure is published as a range rather than averaged into one convenient number.

Reducing phytate without giving up wholegrain

Phytate is partly destroyed by processes that seeds undergo anyway. Sourdough fermentation of rye and wheat breaks down a substantial share of it, which is one reason traditional long-fermented rye bread behaves better than a fast-yeasted wholemeal loaf. Soaking and sprouting legumes and grains, and simply cooking them, also lower it.

So the practical answer to a high-phytate diet is not less wholegrain: it is fermented bread, soaked and well-cooked legumes, and a zinc-dense food such as meat, shellfish, cheese, pumpkin seeds or hemp seed somewhere in the day.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding add a fixed increment

EFSA adds 1.6 mg a day for pregnancy and 2.9 mg a day for breastfeeding, on top of whichever female value matches the diet phytate level. The rows above show those increments applied to the low-phytate figure; at a high-phytate intake the totals are correspondingly higher.

The zinc and copper problem

Zinc and copper compete for the same intestinal transport, and a sustained high zinc intake induces a binding protein in the gut wall that traps copper and carries it back out. Long-term zinc supplementation well above the reference intake has produced copper deficiency with anaemia and neurological damage. This is the main reason zinc has a relatively low upper level of 25 mg a day.

The upper level

EFSA tolerable upper intake level for zinc in adults is 25 mg a day from all sources. Sustained intake above it interferes with copper absorption, and copper deficiency from long-term high-dose zinc is a documented clinical problem — including from denture adhesives and from zinc taken continuously "for immunity".

Ordinary food against the 9.4 mg male reference intake at a low phytate intake

Top of this list: Veal liver, 12 mg in a 100 g serving (a small portion) — 128% of the 9.4 mg male reference intake at a low phytate intake. One serving covers the whole day on its own.

Portion sizes are ordinary household servings chosen for this table, not official reference portions, and the shortlist is an editorial one: everyday foods eaten in this region rather than the highest per-100 g entries in the database. A raw per-100 g ranking would be topped by dried herbs, drink powders and fortified breakfast cereals, which answers a different question. The composition data is American, so where US fortification practice differs from European practice the row carries a dagger and the reason. For the full per-100 g ranking of a nutrient, the food-data section of this site publishes one.

For the full ranking of every food in the database by zinc per 100 g, see foods highest in zinc.

Sources: EFSA Dietary Reference Values · Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIII · USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy (food composition) · EFSA scientific opinion on dietary reference values for zinc (2014) · Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIII · checked 2026-09-06

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