Chromium forms: picolinate, chloride and yeast
Futures Nutrition Editorial Team · 13 August 2026
Chromium forms: picolinate, chloride and yeast
The short answer: six chromium compounds are permitted across Europe in food supplements, but in practice you meet almost only two — chromium picolinate and chromium-enriched yeast. Absorption is low from all of them: for trivalent chromium from food, the EU Scientific Committee on Food gives a range of 0.1 to 3 per cent. Only for chromium yeast has the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recorded a documented advantage — and it expressly does not apply to every yeast that goes by that name.
Anyone who reads "organically bound" on a pack thinks of what they know from magnesium or zinc: better absorption, fewer stomach problems. With chromium the situation is different, and in both directions — the differences between the forms are less well documented than the advertising suggests, and the one exception sits exactly where nobody expects it.
Six compounds are permitted — no more
Which substances may go into a food supplement at all is not a matter of taste but a positive list: Annex II of Directive 2002/46/EC. It was replaced in full in 2009 by Regulation (EC) No 1170/2009 and supplemented once more in 2014. For chromium, these entries appear there:
| Compound | Chromium content (calculated) | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Chromium(III) chloride | around 33 % | the reference form in research, starting material for chromium yeast |
| Chromium-enriched yeast | 0.023–0.030 % (230–300 mg/kg) | permitted since 2014, tied to a specification |
| Chromium(III) lactate trihydrate | around 14 % | mainly for fortified foods |
| Chromium nitrate | around 22 % | hardly ever found in supplements |
| Chromium picolinate | around 12 % | by far the most common form on the market |
| Chromium(III) sulphate | around 27 % | rare |
The percentages in the middle column are calculated from the molar masses of the compounds and rounded to whole per cent; for the yeast, the figure given is the content that Regulation (EU) No 119/2014 prescribes as a specification. All six entries refer to trivalent chromium, chromium(III).
Anything that is not on this list may not be used in Europe as a chromium source in a food supplement — not even if it has been studied or is sold in other countries. Chromium(III) nicotinate, for instance, turns up regularly in the literature; in Annex II it does not appear.
What is on the label — and what is not
This is the practical core, and it fits into one sentence: what is declared is always the element, not the compound. Nutrition labelling under Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 refers, for minerals, to chromium itself. "200 µg chromium" therefore means 200 µg of chromium, regardless of whether the tablet contains picolinate, chloride or yeast.
It only becomes confusing when a manufacturer puts the compound in the foreground instead. "500 µg chromium picolinate" on the front of the pack is precisely not 500 µg of chromium, but around 62 µg — exactly the arithmetic trap that buyers fall into with magnesium in droves. Conversely: whoever wants to deliver 200 µg of chromium needs a different amount of raw material depending on the form.
| Form | Amount for 200 µg chromium |
|---|---|
| Chromium(III) chloride | around 0.6 mg |
| Chromium(III) lactate trihydrate | around 1.4 mg |
| Chromium picolinate | around 1.6 mg |
| Chromium-enriched yeast | around 0.7–0.9 g |
The last row incidentally explains why yeast preparations usually carry lower doses: just under a gram of dried yeast per daily portion already fills a capsule well. Which amounts make sense at all with chromium is a separate question — reference value, estimated value and guidance value are three different things.
How little is absorbed in the first place
The most important finding on absorption does not concern the differences between the forms, but the order of magnitude overall. In 2003 the Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) put the absorption of ingested trivalent chromium at 0.1 to 3 per cent — depending, among other things, on the chemical properties of the compound, on the level of intake and on whatever else is on the plate. More than 97 per cent of dietary chromium is not absorbed and is excreted in the faeces, the EFSA recorded in 2012.
The accompanying substances play a measurable role: starch, ascorbic acid, oxalate, amino acids and other minerals all influence chromium absorption. Absorbed chromium binds in the blood to transferrin, that is to the same transport protein as iron — interactions between the two are therefore theoretically possible. The EFSA considered them unlikely with preparations containing less than 100 µg of chromium; they were investigated in animals at markedly higher amounts.
So anyone looking for the form that is "much better" absorbed is searching within a narrow window. Between 0.4 and 1.2 per cent there is, in practice, no difference that you could notice in how you feel.
Chromium picolinate: the form on the shelf
Chromium picolinate is a complex of one chromium(III) ion and three molecules of picolinic acid. Picolinic acid is not an exotic additive but a breakdown product of the amino acid tryptophan; by that route the body produces daily quantities many times larger than what is in a chromium tablet. It also occurs naturally in foods, for example in broccoli, beans and potatoes.
The EFSA assessed chromium picolinate in 2010 in a separate opinion (EFSA Journal 2010;8(12):1883) and reached the same conclusion as for trivalent chromium in general: not of concern, provided the total amount of chromium does not exceed 250 µg per day — the value the WHO named in 1996 for additional intake.
The second question regularly asked about this form concerns effects on genetic material. The EFSA discussed it at length in the parallel opinion on trivalent chromium (EFSA Journal 2010;8(12):1882): in cell experiments, chromium(III) can cause DNA damage at high concentrations; in animal studies to OECD standards and in the long-term studies of the US National Toxicology Program this does not show up. The panel recorded that chromium(III) is not carcinogenic, and put the margin between 250 µg per day and the level found to be without concern in the NTP studies at four to five orders of magnitude.
Our Chromium 200 µg uses chromium picolinate: one tablet a day with 200 µg of chromium, which corresponds to 500 % of the nutrient reference value.
Anyone who also takes a combination product containing chromium should add the labels together: the guidance value of 250 µg refers to the sum from all preparations and fortified foods, not to a single tub.
Chromium yeast: the only documented advantage
Chromium-enriched yeast is produced by cultivating baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in the presence of chromium(III) chloride. The yeast cells take up the chromium and bind it predominantly to amino acids and peptides — it is then present in organic form. Which compounds exactly are formed in the process has not been conclusively clarified to this day; the EFSA expressly named this as a data gap.
Even so, this is the only form of chromium for which a European authority has recorded a difference in bioavailability. The decisive evidence was a cross-over study in 67 people with type 2 diabetes: after eight weeks, 23.3 µg of chromium from brewer's yeast led to practically the same rise in serum chromium as 200 µg of chromium from chromium chloride (Bahijiri et al., 2000). From this the EFSA concluded in 2012 that the bioavailability of chromium from chromium-enriched yeast is potentially up to about ten times higher in humans than that from chromium chloride.
Two qualifications belong with it, and both are in the same opinion. First, "potentially up to" is not a measured absorption rate — older figures of 5 to 10 per cent for brewer's yeast date from 1971, and the EFSA noted that chromium analysis was regarded as imprecise at the time and that other groups were unable to reproduce the values. Second, the assessment applies only to the preparation examined, ChromoPrecise®, and expressly not to other chromium-enriched yeasts without equivalent data.
The legislator turned this into a specification. The entry in Annex II of Directive 2002/46/EC refers to yeast obtained "in the presence of chromium(III) chloride as a source of chromium in a culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae", which in the commercially available dried form contains 230–300 mg chromium/kg and whose content of hexavalent chromium must not exceed 0.2 % of total chromium. So anyone buying a yeast preparation can check little on the label — the checking sits in the authorisation of the raw material.
Chloride, sulphate, nitrate, lactate
The inorganic salts lead a niche existence in food supplements, even though they have the longest authorisation history. Chromium(III) chloride is the form against which studies almost always compare, and at the same time the starting material from which chromium yeast is made — it therefore appears twice over in this subject. Chromium(III) sulphate and chromium nitrate are permitted, but hardly to be found on the market.
Chromium(III) lactate trihydrate is a special case: Regulation (EU) No 119/2014 did not add it to the supplement list but to Annex II of Regulation (EC) No 1925/2006 — that is, to the list of substances that may be added to ordinary foods. The basis was an EFSA opinion of September 2012. For a purchasing decision at the supplement shelf it therefore plays practically no role. An overview of the rest of the trace element range is in the Minerals category, all chromium products in the Chromium category.
One distinction is worth reading once: all authorised forms contain trivalent chromium. Hexavalent chromium(VI) is a different class of compound from industrial contexts, assessed as an undesirable substance in food and drinking water. That the yeast specification includes an upper limit for chromium(VI) is owed precisely to this distinction — with a biological raw material, purity cannot be assumed, it has to be laid down.
What may appear on the pack
For chromium, two health claims are authorised, independently of the form, and in exactly this wording: Chromium contributes to normal macronutrient metabolism. Chromium contributes to the maintenance of normal blood glucose levels. (Regulation (EU) No 432/2012). The condition is that a daily portion reaches at least 15 % of the nutrient reference value, that is 6 µg of chromium. What the second sentence covers exactly and what it does not is set out in Chromium and blood sugar: what the claim covers. Food supplements are not a substitute for a balanced and varied diet and a healthy lifestyle.
Frequently asked questions
Is chromium picolinate better than chromium chloride? Not with the clarity with which it is advertised. The EFSA assessed picolinate as a safe source of chromium, but did not draw up any ranking of bioavailability. The only difference recorded by an authority concerns chromium-enriched yeast compared with chromium chloride.
How much chromium is in "500 µg chromium picolinate"? Around 62 µg. The chromium content of the compound is about 12 %. If, on the other hand, the nutrition table says "chromium: 200 µg", then 200 µg of chromium is meant — there, the element is always what is declared.
How do I recognise good chromium yeast? Barely from the label. What matters is that the raw material meets the specification in Annex II of Directive 2002/46/EC: 230–300 mg chromium/kg in the dried commercial form and no more than 0.2 % hexavalent chromium. A product that may lawfully be sold in the EU has to meet that.
Does the form matter for the authorised claims? No. The two chromium claims from Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 apply to the nutrient, not to a particular compound. All that counts is that the daily portion supplies at least 6 µg of chromium.
Sources: Directive 2002/46/EC, Annex II Part B, replaced by Regulation (EC) No 1170/2009 (authorised chromium sources); Regulation (EU) No 119/2014 (entry "chromium-enriched yeast" with specification 230–300 mg chromium/kg and ≤ 0.2 % chromium(VI); chromium(III) lactate trihydrate in Annex II of Regulation (EC) No 1925/2006); Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIII (nutrient reference value for chromium 40 µg, significant amount 15 %); Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 (official wording of the authorised claims); SCF (2003), Opinion on the Tolerable Upper Intake Level of Trivalent Chromium (absorption 0.1–3 %); EFSA ANS Panel, Scientific Opinion on the safety of trivalent chromium as a nutrient added …, EFSA Journal 2010;8(12):1882 (250 µg/day, genotoxicity, carcinogenicity); EFSA ANS Panel, Scientific Opinion on the safety of chromium picolinate …, EFSA Journal 2010;8(12):1883; EFSA ANS Panel, Scientific Opinion on ChromoPrecise® cellular bound chromium yeast …, EFSA Journal 2012;10(11):2951 (bioavailability up to about tenfold compared with chromium chloride, study Bahijiri et al. 2000, > 97 % not absorbed, restriction to ChromoPrecise®); EFSA ANS Panel, Scientific Opinion on chromium(III) lactate tri-hydrate …, EFSA Journal 2012;10(10):2881; chromium contents calculated from the molar masses of the compounds; composition and recommended use according to the label of the product mentioned.
