How much chromium per day: 40 µg label, 30–100 µg estimate
Futures Nutrition Editorial Team · 13 August 2026
How much chromium per day: 40 µg label, 30–100 µg estimate
The short answer: there is no established daily requirement for chromium. The German Nutrition Society (DGE) gives an estimated value of 30 to 100 µg per day for adolescents from 15 years of age and adults; the 40 µg on the pack is something else — a labelling value. And in 2014 the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) explicitly declined to set any reference value at all.
That sounds like an evasion, but it is the most honest account that can be given of this trace element — and it explains why the percentages on chromium supplements look so confusing. Anyone who keeps the three figures apart can size up a pack in half a minute.
Four numbers that do not mean the same thing
| Value | Amount per day | What it says | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nutrient reference value (NRV) | 40 µg | calculation basis for the percentage on the label | Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIII |
| Estimated value for adequate intake | 30–100 µg | orientation range for adolescents from 15 years and adults | D-A-CH / German Nutrition Society (derived in 2000) |
| Average Requirement / PRI | — | not derived: the evidence does not support a requirement | EFSA (2014) |
| Guidance value for supplemental intake | 250 µg | amount from supplements and fortified foods at which there are no health concerns | EFSA (2010), matching the WHO value |
| Proposed maximum level for food supplements | 60 µg | recommendation to the legislator, per recommended daily intake | German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), 2021 |
The third row is the heart of the matter. For calcium or iron there is a figure there, taken from balance studies; for chromium there is nothing, and for a stated reason.
Why EFSA set no reference value
In 2014 the responsible EFSA panel reviewed the evidence on chromium and arrived at an unusually clear conclusion: neither an Average Requirement nor a Population Reference Intake can be derived, and the panel did not consider it appropriate to set an Adequate Intake either.
The reason is not that too little research has been done, but that the findings do not fit together. Indications that chromium is essential come mainly from cases of long-term artificial nutrition delivered through a vein, in which chromium was missing and was then supplied. For healthy people with normal blood glucose, by contrast, EFSA found no convincing evidence of a beneficial effect of additional chromium intake — and without a measurable effect no requirement can be calculated.
The German, Austrian and Swiss scientific societies nevertheless keep an estimated value. It rests on a derivation from the year 2000 and describes a range regarded as adequate, not a requirement in the strict sense:
| Age group | Estimated value (µg/day) |
|---|---|
| 0 to under 4 months | 1–10 |
| 4 to under 12 months | 20–40 |
| 1 to under 4 years | 20–60 |
| 4 to under 7 years | 20–80 |
| 7 to under 15 years | 20–100 |
| from 15 years and adults | 30–100 |
The width of the range is striking. A span of 30 to 100 µg means the upper figure is more than three times the lower one — for calcium or vitamin D such a statement would be unthinkable. It is an honest depiction of the uncertainty.
What the 40 µg on the pack mean
The nutrient reference value is a calculation figure from the food information regulation, not a recommendation. It ensures that “60 µg of chromium” is expressed across Europe as “150 % NRV” and that declarations stay comparable.
A second, practical rule hangs on it: a nutrient may only be named on a pack, and linked to an authorised claim, if a significant amount is present — 15 % of the nutrient reference value, in food supplements per recommended daily portion. For chromium that is 6 µg per daily portion. This is a low threshold; it explains why chromium turns up in many combination products with double-digit microgram amounts without being the main subject there.
Conversely this means that a high percentage on the front of the pack says less for chromium than for other nutrients, because the reference value of 40 µg is very low. 200 µg amounts to 500 % NRV — and still stays below what EFSA considers unobjectionable as a supplemental daily intake.
What the diet contributes
Chromium is present in many everyday foods, but rarely in large amounts in any one place. The DGE names meat, eggs, oats and tomatoes as sources — nothing exotic, in other words. It does not publish a reliable nutrient table for chromium, and there is a reason for that: the contents vary strongly with soil, processing and analytical method, which is why individual figures from food tables should be read with caution.
Measurements of actual intake are more informative. In German duplicate studies — in which a second, identical portion of every meal is analysed — mean chromium intake from food was 61 ± 31 µg per day in women and 84 ± 55 µg per day in men. Both values lie within the estimated range of 30 to 100 µg, and the figure for men approaches its upper end.
For children and adolescents, the EFSA panel on contaminants evaluated data from 17 member states. Among 4- to 17-year-olds mean intakes ranged, depending on age, between 54 and 83 µg per day, the 95th percentiles between 93 and 141 µg. Here too: ordinary meals supply the order of magnitude in question.
So anyone looking for a gap will find in chromium — unlike vitamin D in winter or iron in certain phases of life — no broad undersupply that would show up in consumption data. The German National Nutrition Survey II did not even record chromium.
How much belongs in a supplement?
This is where it gets concrete for the buying decision, and this is where two figures stand side by side that are worth knowing.
In 2003 the EU Commission’s former Scientific Committee on Food was unable, for lack of data, to derive any tolerable upper intake level (UL) for chromium. In 2010 EFSA instead named a guidance value: trivalent chromium added to foods and food supplements as a nutrient is unobjectionable as long as intake from these sources does not exceed 250 µg per day. For chromium picolinate as a chromium source the authority reached the same conclusion in the same year.
The BfR works on from this guidance value and arrives at a distinctly narrower recommendation: it allocates half of the 250 µg to food supplements and half to fortified foods, and applies an uncertainty factor of 2 for supplements, because several chromium-containing products may be taken alongside each other. The result: 60 µg per recommended daily intake. For fortified foods the institute proposes 15 µg per 100 g and 4 µg per 100 ml for drinks.
Important for context: these proposed maximum levels are recommendations to the legislator, not applicable law. Directive 2002/46/EC does provide for binding European maximum levels for vitamins and minerals in food supplements, but to this day none have been set. Supplements above and below the BfR proposal are therefore both on the market.
Our Chromium 200 µg belongs to the first group: one tablet daily with 200 µg of chromium as chromium picolinate, which corresponds to 500 % of the nutrient reference value. The amount is above the BfR proposal of 60 µg and below the EFSA guidance value of 250 µg for supplemental intake. Anyone also taking a combination product containing chromium should add up the labels — the guidance value refers to the sum of all supplements and fortified foods.
Chromium picolinate is an organic compound of chromium and picolinic acid; it appears in Annex II of Directive 2002/46/EC and may therefore be used in food supplements. What is always meant here is trivalent chromium, chromium(III) — not the hexavalent chromium(VI) from industrial contexts, which EFSA has assessed separately as an undesirable substance in food and drinking water. How the individual compounds differ, and what that means for absorption, is set out in Chromium forms compared. Where chromium fits among the other trace elements is shown by the overview in the Minerals category; all chromium products are listed in the Chromium category. What else to look at when comparing two packs — amount per tablet, compound, combination products — is covered in the buying guide.
What may appear on a chromium pack
Two claims are authorised for chromium, in precisely this wording: Chromium contributes to normal macronutrient metabolism. Chromium contributes to the maintenance of normal blood glucose levels. (Regulation (EU) No 432/2012). Both require the product to reach the significant amount of 6 µg per daily portion. Anything beyond that — statements about appetite or body weight, for instance — is not authorised. Food supplements are not a substitute for a balanced and varied diet and a healthy lifestyle.
Common questions
How much chromium do I need a day? No established requirement exists. As orientation, Germany uses the estimated value of 30 to 100 µg for adolescents from 15 years and adults. In 2014 EFSA deliberately set no reference value, because the evidence does not support one.
Why do supplements say 500 % NRV? Because the nutrient reference value of 40 µg is very low. 200 µg is five times that figure and still lies below the guidance value of 250 µg that EFSA named for supplemental daily intake. The percentage describes the ratio to a labelling value, not to a requirement.
Do I get enough chromium from ordinary food? According to the available measurements, average intake in Germany is 61 µg (women) and 84 µg (men), within the estimated range. No broad undersupply is visible in the data — chromium was not even recorded in the German National Nutrition Survey II.
Is the chromium in supplements the same as chromium in industry? No. Foods and food supplements use trivalent chromium(III), for example as chromium picolinate. Hexavalent chromium(VI) is a different class of compound, assessed as an undesirable substance in food and drinking water, and it has no place in supplements.
Sources: Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIII (nutrient reference value for chromium: 40 µg; significant amount 15 %); Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 (list of permitted health claims, official wording); Directive 2002/46/EC, Annex II, supplemented by Regulation (EC) No 1170/2009 (chromium picolinate as a permitted chromium source); German Nutrition Society, Reference Values for Nutrient Intake — copper, manganese, chromium, molybdenum (estimated values, derived in 2000); EFSA NDA Panel, Scientific Opinion on Dietary Reference Values for chromium, EFSA Journal 2014;12(10):3845 (no AR, no PRI, no AI); EFSA ANS Panel, Scientific Opinion on the safety of trivalent chromium as a nutrient added … EFSA Journal 2010;8(12):1882 and on the safety of chromium picolinate, EFSA Journal 2010 (250 µg/day as guidance value for supplemental intake, matching the WHO value); SCF (2003), Opinion on the Tolerable Upper Intake Level of Chromium (no UL derivable); German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Proposed maximum levels for chromium in foods including food supplements (2021): 60 µg per recommended daily intake, 15 µg/100 g, 4 µg/100 ml, which also contains the intake data from duplicate studies (Anke et al. 1998, cited in D-A-CH) and the children’s data from the EFSA CONTAM Panel (EFSA Journal 2014;12(3):3595); composition and recommended intake as stated on the label of the product mentioned.
