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 First set in 1974 by the US Food and Drug administration (FDA), the RDA was used on nutrition labels to give the consumer a reasonable idea of the nutritional content of food and vitamin/mineral supplements they were consuming.  At the time, it replaced the MDR (minimum daily requirement).  The RDA is a value based upon the highest RDA values determined for any specific group.   For instance, if men require 10milligrams of iron per day and women require 18, the iron requirement on a food label would be based upon 18 milligrams.

The term RDA was switched in 1992 to RDI (Reference Daily Intakes) and reflects 1989 RDA values that span a particular age range, such as children over 4 years through adulthood.

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