Approach to Setting DRIs for Fat and Fatty Acids

Dietary reference intake (DRI) values for fat and fatty acids were last updated in the late 1990’s. Since that time a considerable amount of new data has emerged. An initial step to review and potentially update the fat and fatty acid DRI values was for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to issue two Request For Task Order (RFTO) – RFTO #95: The Effect of Dietary Saturated Fat Replacement on Blood Lipid Outcomes in Adults and Children and The Effect of Dietary Intake of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids on Blood Lipid Outcomes in Adults and Children; and RFTO #96: The Effect of Dietary Saturated Fat Replacement on Cardiovascular Endpoint Outcomes in Adults; and The Effect of Dietary Intake of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Cardiovascular Endpoint Outcomes in Adults on May 24, 2024. Requested were systematic reviews for sequential peer review and public comment. These contracts were awarded to the Brown University Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) for the Effective Healthcare (EHC) Program of the AHRQ of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Brown is one of 9 EPCs currently sponsored by AHRQ. These systematic reviews will be used by the National Research Council of National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine panel constituted to review and establish DRI values for dietary fat and fatty acids.