The United Kingdom Expert Group on Vitamins and Minerals (EVM) last evaluated vitamins and minerals for safety in 2003 and set a so-called Safe Upper Level (SUL) or Guidance Level for each micronutrient, provided sufficient data were available. This SUL or Guidance Level reflects the safe maximum amount of a micronutrient that will not cause any side effects when taken daily from all sources for a lifetime.
| The maximum safe daily intake for phosphorus is 2,400 mg. The maximum safe daily intake for phosphorus is approximately 3.5 times the EU recommended daily intake (Nutrient Reference Value, NRV). |
The safe maximum daily intake indicated above is composed of an assumed maximum intake of 2,100 mg of phosphorus from the conventional diet and an intake of 250 mg of phosphorus from dietary supplements that is considered safe.
The 2004 nutrition report shows that the safe maximum daily intake is not reached on average by the German population.
Negative effects of a permanently excessive phosphorus intake via conventional (conventional) foods are not known.
The NOAEL (No Observed Adverse Effect Level) – the highest dose of a substance that has no detectable and measurable adverse effects even with continued intake – was set by EVM at 750 mg phosphorus per day from dietary supplements and corresponds to three times the maximum amount considered safe from dietary supplements.
Adverse effects of excessive phosphorus intake from dietary supplements are primarily gastrointestinal complaints (discomfort in the gastrointestinal tract) such as diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting.
Healthy people seem to tolerate amounts of 3,000 mg of phosphorus per day without side effects. In some cases, amounts as low as 750 mg of phosphorus daily in the form of supplements, taken over a week, resulted in undesirable side effects.
A permanently excessive phosphorus intake leads to increased phosphorus concentrations in the blood and can promote calcinosis (pathological deposition of calcium salts in the skin and body organs). An amount of up to 2,000 mg of phosphorus per day did not produce signs of calcinosis in studies over a 15-month period.
