AIN-76 diet: should we change the formulation?

This is a summary of the AIN-76 Workshop held on March 19, 1989, at the FASEB meetings in New Orleans, LA. The purpose of this preliminary workshop was to discuss whether or not changes should be made in the formulation of the AIN-76 rodent diet. The following are highlights of some of the recommendations made by various expert committees, but they do not constitute a new formulation of the rodent diet: 1) fat should comprise no less than 10% by weight of the diet, and the fatty acid content should be standardized; 2) there should be some standardization of the source of cellulose fiber, and the amorphous form is better than the crystalline form; 3) the level of dietary vitamin E should be raised by 50% if the dietary fat content is increased to 10%; 4) one suggested alternative to decrease the incidence of nephrocalcinosis in rats consuming the AIN-76 diet for long periods is to decrease the calcium phosphate dibasic content to 400 g/kg mineral mixture; and 5) the level of manganese should be decreased to 10 mg/kg diet.