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Folate Requirement (DFE) Calculator

Enter your food folate and folic acid intake to compute your dietary folate equivalents.

How it is calculated

The tool converts your intake to dietary folate equivalents: DFE = food folate + 1.7 × folic acid, with both amounts in micrograms (µg, also written mcg). Food folate is the natural folate in food; folic acid is the synthetic form from supplements and fortified foods. It then compares DFE with the daily reference amount for the chosen life stage: child 200, teen 300, adult 400, pregnant 600, lactating 500 µg DFE. It reports your DFE, that reference amount, DFE as a percentage of it, and the amount remaining (negative if you are above it). The tool always uses the 1.7 factor; it has no separate factor for supplements taken on an empty stomach. At least one of the two intake fields must be above zero.

Worked example

A pregnant woman gets about 250 µg of folate from food and takes a supplement with 200 µg of folic acid. Step 1: folic acid in DFE = 1.7 × 200 = 340. Step 2: total DFE = 250 + 340 = 590 µg DFE. Step 3: the reference amount for pregnancy is 600 µg DFE, so she is at 590 ÷ 600 = 98.33%. Step 4: remaining = 600 − 590 = 10 µg DFE.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Adding food folate and folic acid micrograms directly; folic acid counts 1.7 times, so a plain sum understates your intake.
  • Entering the supplement dose in milligrams (0.4 mg is 400 µg) or reading the label's mcg DFE as mcg of folic acid.
  • Choosing the adult stage during pregnancy or breastfeeding, so the comparison uses a lower reference amount.
  • Entering the total from the label of a supplement that already lists DFE in the folic acid field, which applies the 1.7 multiplier twice.
  • Treating the percentage as a target to exceed; the tool compares with a daily reference amount and does not judge whether more is better.

About this calculator

Dietary Folate Equivalents (DFE) let you compare naturally occurring food folate with synthetic folic acid, which the body absorbs roughly 1.7 times more efficiently. The standard conversion, which this calculator uses, is DFE = mcg food folate + (1.7 × mcg folic acid from fortified food or supplements) — the U.S. RDA is 400 mcg DFE/day for most adults, rising to 600 mcg during pregnancy to help prevent neural tube defects.

Because folic acid is so much better absorbed than food folate, simply adding up milligrams from a cereal box and a spinach salad would understate your actual intake — DFE corrects for that so it can be compared directly against the RDA. Registered dietitians, prenatal care providers, and public health nutritionists use this conversion to counsel patients, especially those planning pregnancy, on whether their combined diet and supplement intake meets folate recommendations.

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