Vitamin K - content in food and dietary intake among the Danes

Insufficient information on the content of vitamin K2 in our foods hinder estimation of the dietary intake. We aimed to establish content of eight vitamin K vitamers, vitamin K1 (phylloquinone; PK) and vitamin K2 (menaquinones; MK-4 to MK-10) in 88 composite food samples representing dairy, eggs, meat, fish, cereals, and plant-based alternatives to dairy. Combined with PK data for other foods, the dietary intake among Danes was estimated. The unit'PKeq’ is used to compensate for the difference in molecular weight for MK-4 at 445 g/mol up to MK-10 at 853 g/mol. The highest content was found in chicken thigh with skin at 53 μg PKeq/100 g followed by 49 μg PKeq/100 g in Danablue (blue cheese). The daily intake of vitamin K is 139 μg to 160 μg PKeq for adults. The highest percentage comes from PK (64 %), 27 % from MK-4, 4.6 % from MK-9, and 2.4 % from MK-8.