Abstract EFSA received a mandate from the European Commission (EC) to re‐assess the elements linked to the establishment of the health‐based guidance value in the opinion on cadmium in food of the EFSA's CONTAM panel (EFSA, 2009a). The CONTAM Unit asked support from the Assessment Methodology Unit to re‐assess the elements leading to the establishment of the health‐based guidance value in the opinion taking into account a report established by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA, 2010) where a different health‐based guidance value was concluded. In this scientific report, the methodology used by EFSA and its rationale is described in more detail, and supporting evidence for the need of an adjustment factor to establish a health‐based guidance value is provided. A comparison between JECFA and EFSA approaches is presented, as well as a sensitivity analysis in relation to the choice of the toxicodynamic variability function used by JECFA in their approach, to illustrate impact when establishing a health‐based guidance value.