Setting tolerable upper intake levels for nutrients

This paper is intended to present the background and general principles embodied in the model for the risk assessment of nutrients of the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) of the Institute of Medicine, National Academies. Because no one had previously developed a comprehensive approach to the risk assessment of nutrients, the FNB Subcommittee on Upper Reference Levels of Nutrients first looked at various options that could be used to accomplish this task. During initial meetings, the committee considered a variety of options for setting tolerable upper intake levels and settled on the risk assessment approach described in this paper.