Too much chromium: limits and chromium(III) vs (VI)
Futures Nutrition Editorial Team · 13 August 2026
Too much chromium: limits and chromium(III) vs (VI)
The short answer: there is no tolerable upper intake level (UL) for chromium — in 2003 the Scientific Committee on Food of the European Commission was unable to derive one from the available data. Since then the EFSA figure has served as orientation: up to 250 µg of chromium(III) a day from supplements and fortified foods there are no health concerns. From that, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment calculates a proposed maximum level of 60 µg per daily portion. And the carcinogenic chromium known from industry and drinking water is hexavalent chromium(VI) — as a source in food supplements it is not permitted.
“No UL” reads reassuringly, but it means the opposite of a declaration of safety: it means the data are not sufficient for a figure. Anyone wanting to know where the ceiling for chromium lies therefore has to keep four different values apart — they come from four different questions.
The figures that do exist
| Value | Amount | What it applies to | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tolerable upper intake level (UL) | not derivable | — | SCF (2003) |
| Guidance value for additional intake | 250 µg/day | chromium(III) from supplements and fortified foods | EFSA (2010), corresponds to the WHO value |
| Proposed maximum level for food supplements | 60 µg per recommended daily portion | recommendation to the legislator | BfR (2021) |
| Tolerable daily intake (TDI) for chromium(III) | 300 µg per kg body weight per day | chromium(III) in food, from the point of view of contaminant assessment | EFSA CONTAM (2014) |
The last row is surprising at first reading. 300 µg per kilogram of body weight works out at 21 mg a day for a person weighing 70 kg — almost a hundred times the guidance value of 250 µg. Both figures are nonetheless correct, because they answer different questions: the TDI comes from the assessment of chromium as a natural constituent and possible contaminant in food, the guidance value from the assessment of chromium as an added nutrient. For judging supplements the second one is decisive, and only that one.
Why there is no maximum level
In 2003 the Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) collected what was available on the oral toxicity of trivalent chromium — and found little that was usable for a dose–response relationship. In a 20-week feeding study in rats, no adverse effects appeared up to 15 mg of chromium per kg body weight per day, although only liver and kidneys were examined histologically. The only long-term study worked with chromium(III) oxide, a pigment insoluble in water and acids, from which nothing can be deduced for soluble chromium salts. The result: “a tolerable upper intake level can not be derived”. The US Food and Nutrition Board reached the same conclusion.
For practical purposes one observation remained: in a series of controlled supplementation studies — the longest running 64 weeks — no adverse effects occurred up to 1 mg of chromium a day. The SCF, however, wrote that sentence down with two restrictions. First, those studies were designed to show efficacy, not to detect side effects. Second — and this is the point worth knowing — the assessment ends with the sentence: “This evaluation is not applicable to chromium picolinate.”
Chromium picolinate: excluded in 2003, covered in 2010
Of all things, the most common form on the market was expressly excluded from the reassuring figure. The reason lay in laboratory findings: in cell cultures at high concentrations chromium picolinate damaged chromosomes, and the effect was attributed to the picolinic acid part — chromium(III) nicotinate and chromium(III) chloride did not show it at comparable concentrations. The British expert group EGVM therefore also took picolinate out of its guidance level of 0.15 mg of chromium per kg body weight (around 10 mg per person). In Germany, all exemption permits for chromium picolinate in food supplements were revoked in 2001.
EFSA closed this gap in 2010 with an opinion of its own. It reviewed the newer genotoxicity data and recorded: in vitro, chromium picolinate can cause DNA damage at high concentrations; in vivo — in tests following standard OECD protocols and in the studies of the US National Toxicology Program — chromium(III) compounds did not show this effect. Weighing everything up, the panel assessed chromium picolinate as not genotoxic and came to the same conclusion as for trivalent chromium in general: no safety concern, as long as total chromium intake from these sources does not exceed 250 µg a day. It added one condition — the specification of the raw material must ensure that the chromium(VI) content is as low as possible.
How far that point carries is shown by the coincidence that today’s TDI for chromium(III) comes from exactly such a study: in 2014 EFSA derived it from a two-year feeding study in rats with chromium picolinate monohydrate, in which no adverse effects occurred even at the highest dose tested of 286 mg per kg body weight per day. The usual safety factors were applied to that figure: 100 for extrapolation from animals to humans and for individual differences, plus a further 10 because reliable data on reproductive toxicity are missing.
Which other chromium compounds are permitted, and how much chromium each of them contains, is set out in Chromium forms compared.
Where the BfR’s 60 µg come from
In 2021 the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment published a proposed maximum level for chromium, and its arithmetic can be followed in three steps:
- The starting point is the EFSA guidance value of 250 µg for additional intake. Because it concerns only the additional amount, the normal diet stays out of the calculation.
- Chromium compounds may also be used to fortify ordinary foods. The BfR therefore splits the 250 µg in half: 125 µg for food supplements, 125 µg for fortified foods.
- Because several chromium-containing preparations can be taken alongside one another and because gaps in knowledge remain, it applies an uncertainty factor of 2 for supplements: 125 ÷ 2 = 62.5, rounded down to 60 µg per recommended daily portion.
For fortified foods the institute proposes 15 µg per 100 g and 4 µg per 100 ml for beverages. Important for placing this correctly: proposed maximum levels from the BfR are recommendations to the legislator, not applicable law. Binding European maximum levels for vitamins and minerals in food supplements are indeed provided for in Directive 2002/46/EC, but to this day they have not been set.
Our Chromium 200 µg therefore sits between the two marks: one tablet a day with 200 µg of chromium as chromium picolinate — above the BfR proposal of 60 µg, below the EFSA guidance value of 250 µg. Anyone additionally taking a combination product containing chromium should add up the labels, because the guidance value applies to the sum from all supplements and fortified foods. Where the reference figures come from, and why 500 % NRV means less for chromium than it sounds, is set out in How much chromium per day.
Chromium(III) and chromium(VI): the difference that counts
Chromium occurs in several oxidation states; two of them are stable and practically relevant. Chromium(III) is the form that occurs in food and that is added as a nutrient. Chromium(VI) arises above all in industrial processes — chrome plating, tanning, welding fumes — and usually reaches water as an anthropogenic contamination.
Toxicologically these are two different stories. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) lists chromium(VI) compounds in Group 1 (carcinogenic to humans), whereas metallic chromium and chromium(III) compounds are in Group 3 — not classifiable. In 2014 EFSA classified chromium(VI) as genotoxic and carcinogenic and therefore derived no limit value, working instead with margins of exposure: the reference point for tumours is a dose of 1.0 mg of chromium(VI) per kg body weight per day from a two-year study in mice, and 0.11 mg per kg body weight per day for non-neoplastic changes.
Two things put this into perspective for everyday life. First, swallowed chromium(VI) is reduced to chromium(III) in the stomach, and to a considerable extent: saliva manages an estimated 0.7 to 2.1 mg a day, gastric juice at least 80 to 84 mg. Second, the absorption of chromium from food is low in any case — EFSA gives less than 10 % of the amount ingested; for individual compounds it is considerably lower still.
Chromium(VI) has no place in food supplements. Annex II of Directive 2002/46/EC lists exclusively chromium(III) compounds as permitted chromium sources, and for chromium-enriched yeast the authorisation expressly prescribes that the proportion of hexavalent chromium must not exceed 0.2 % of total chromium.
For drinking water, the German Drinking Water Ordinance regulates the matter through a limit for total chromium: 0.025 mg per litre until the end of 11 January 2030, thereafter 0.0050 mg per litre. Related to two litres a day, that is at most 50 µg at present and at most 10 µg in future — orders of magnitude that look small next to a tablet with 200 µg, but that concern a different class of substance.
What is known about very high amounts
Reliable data on chronically high chromium intakes in humans are missing, as described. What is described are individual cases: the SCF refers to case reports in which the intake of chromium picolinate went along with adverse effects that may be attributable to the picolinate part. A single fatal case is documented, and it puts the orders of magnitude into place: a woman drank 400 ml of a tanning solution containing around 15 g of chromium — that corresponds to the amount of chromium in 75,000 tablets of 200 µg.
Studies have used considerably higher amounts than are commercially available: 600 µg a day in the investigation from which the story of chromium against sugar cravings originates, and up to 1,000 µg in weight studies. What to make of that is set out in Chromium and sugar cravings. Two health claims are authorised for chromium, 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 legal position gives no more than that, and neither does the data. Food supplements are not a substitute for a balanced and varied diet and a healthy lifestyle. All chromium products are in the Chromium category, the remaining trace elements in the Minerals category.
Frequently asked questions
Can you overdose on chromium? No authority has so far put a figure on the amount above which harm is to be expected — the data are not sufficient for that. The EFSA guidance value of 250 µg a day from supplements and fortified foods serves as a practical ceiling. Anyone combining several chromium-containing products can exceed it without noticing; that is why it is worth looking at all the labels.
Are 200 µg in one tablet too much? They are above what the BfR proposes to the legislator as a maximum level (60 µg) and below what EFSA regards as safe as an additional daily intake (250 µg). Neither of these is a statutory limit — binding EU maximum levels for food supplements do not exist to this day.
Is the chromium in a supplement the same as the carcinogenic chromium? No. Supplements contain trivalent chromium(III), which IARC classifies as not classifiable. Carcinogenic in the sense of IARC Group 1 are chromium(VI) compounds from industrial contexts; as a chromium source in food supplements they are not permitted.
Should I worry about chromium in drinking water? The Drinking Water Ordinance limits chromium to 0.025 mg per litre, and from 12 January 2030 to 0.0050 mg per litre. In 2014 EFSA saw a low risk for all age groups at average intake via drinking water; arithmetically it became tighter only at the highest assumed levels for infants and young children.
Sources: SCF (2003), Opinion of the Scientific Committee on Food on the Tolerable Upper Intake Level of Trivalent Chromium, SCF/CS/NUT/UPPLEV/67 (no UL derivable; no adverse effects up to 1 mg/day in controlled studies over 6–64 weeks; “This evaluation is not applicable to chromium picolinate”; EGVM guidance level 0.15 mg/kg bw or 10 mg/person, picolinate excluded; clastogenic findings on picolinate after Stearns et al. 1995b/2002; revocation of the German exemption permits in 2001; fatal individual case after Van Heerden et al. 1994); EFSA ANS Panel, Scientific Opinion on the safety of trivalent chromium as a nutrient added …, EFSA Journal 2010;8(12):1882 (250 µg/day, corresponding to the WHO value for additional intake); EFSA ANS Panel, Scientific Opinion on the safety of chromium picolinate …, EFSA Journal 2010;8(12):1883 (genotoxicity in vitro/in vivo, overall weighing, chromium(VI) specification); EFSA CONTAM Panel, Scientific Opinion on the risks to public health related to the presence of chromium in food and drinking water, EFSA Journal 2014;12(3):3595 (TDI 300 µg Cr(III)/kg bw/day from NOAEL 286 mg/kg bw/day, NTP two-year study with chromium picolinate monohydrate; BMDL10 1.0 and 0.11 mg Cr(VI)/kg bw/day respectively; absorption < 10 %; reduction capacity of saliva and gastric juice after De Flora 2000); German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Proposed maximum levels for chromium in foods including food supplements (2021): 60 µg per recommended daily portion, 15 µg/100 g, 4 µg/100 ml including the calculation; IARC Monographs Vol. 49 (1990); Directive 2002/46/EC, Annex II, supplemented by Regulation (EC) No 1170/2009 and Regulation (EU) No 119/2014 (permitted chromium sources, ≤ 0.2 % chromium(VI) in chromium yeast); Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 (official wording of the authorised claims); German Drinking Water Ordinance 2023, Annex 2 Part I (chromium 0.025 mg/l until 11 January 2030, thereafter 0.0050 mg/l); composition and recommended use according to the label of the product mentioned.
