Opinion of the Scientific Panel on food additives, flavourings, processing aids and materials in contact with food (AFC) related to Magnesium Potassium Citrate as a source of magnesium and potassium in food for particular nutritional uses, food supplements and foods intended for the general population
Fernando Aguilar, Herman Autrup, Sue Barlow, Laurence Castle, Riccardo Crebelli,
Wolfgang Dekant, Karl-Heinz Engel, Natalie Gontard, David Gott, Sandro Grilli,
Rainer Gürtler, John Chr. Larsen, Catherine Leclercq, Jean-Charles Leblanc,
F. Xavier Malcata, Wim Mennes, Maria Rosaria Milana, Iona Pratt, Ivonne Rietjens,
Paul Tobback, Fidel Toldrá.
No abstract available
The Scientific Panel on Food Additives, Flavourings, Processing Aids and Materials in Contact with Food (AFC Panel) has been asked to evaluate the safety and bioavailability of magnesium potassium citrate as a source of magnesium and potassium when added for nutritional purposes in foods for particular uses in food supplements and in foods intended for the general population.
The present opinion deals only with the safety and bioavailability of a particular source of magnesium and potassium, magnesium potassium citrate. The safety of magnesium and potassium itself, in terms of the amounts that may be consumed, is outside the remit of this Panel.
The safety evaluation of magnesium potassium citrate as a source for magnesium and potassium in food supplements is based on the safety evaluations of the individual substances, citric acid, potassium citrate and magnesium citrate. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) in 1973 and the EC Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) in 1990 evaluated the individual substances as food additives and established an ADI not specified for citrate and for the cations potassium and magnesium.
Citric acid has a well-established role as an intermediate metabolite in the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Citrates occur in many foods and are normal metabolites in the body and are therefore considered as of no safety concern.
The Panel concluded that the use of magnesium potassium citrate as a source for magnesium and potassium in food for particular nutritional uses, food supplements and foods intended for the general population is of no safety concern.
Regarding bioavailability, data in the literature show that potassium magnesium citrate provides an equivalent potassium bioavailability to that of potassium citrate and potassium chloride, and a comparable magnesium bioavailability to that of magnesium citrate.
The specifications of magnesium potassium citrate as commercialised should comply with the specifications for citric acid and its salts used as food additives.
Opinion of the Scientific Panel on food additives, flavourings, processing aids and materials in contact with food (AFC)related to Magnesium Potassium Citrate as a source of magnesium and potassium in food for particular nutritional uses, food supplements and foods intended for the general population
