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Safety of maximum authorised levels of cobalt and molybdenum for the environment

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The European Food Safety Authority panel on feed additives assessed whether cobalt and molybdenum, used as nutritional additives in feed for land-based food-producing animals at their current maximum authorised levels, are safe for the environment. For molybdenum the only authorised use is sodium molybdate dihydrate in sheep feed. Predicted soil concentrations after manure application were below 10% of the natural background, and the panel concluded that the use is safe for the environment.

Key numbers

  • Authorised use: sodium molybdate dihydrate for sheep, maximum 2.5 mg molybdenum/kg complete feed, under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1965 (Section 3.2, p. 7).
  • Natural background (P90) in soil, FOREGS pristine samples: 1.81 mg/kg soil dry weight (n = 840), chosen as the reference value; other datasets 0.81 to 1.28 mg/kg (Table 3, p. 7; p. 8).
  • Background P90 in groundwater (EGG, bottled mineral water as proxy): 2.14 µg/L (n = 8841); freshwater (FOREGS): 1.07 µg/L (n = 807); freshwater sediment (FOREGS): 1.89 mg/kg dry weight (n = 848) (Table 3, p. 7).
  • Predicted soil concentration after 1 year at the maximum level: 30.3 to 34.4 µg/kg soil dry weight depending on sheep category (Section 3.2.2, p. 8; Table 4).
  • Continuous use over 10 years in meat sheep may raise the soil background by 19%; estimated years to double background range from 53 (adult meat sheep) to 60 (sheep for fattening) (Table 4, p. 8).

Methods (brief)

Worst-case predicted environmental concentrations in soil were calculated with the FERA tool and compared with the 90th percentile of concentrations in pristine or minimally impacted areas. If soil predictions are below 10% of background, no further assessment of groundwater or surface water is required.

Evidence fitness

Authoritative for the current EU feed-additive authorisation of molybdenum and for European background concentrations in soil and water. It assesses environmental safety only; it sets no human dietary limit and does not assess safety for consumers or the target animals.

Limitations

Model-based soil predictions do not account for removal by plant uptake. Background values come from datasets of different ages and coverage, and several national datasets had too many values below detection to compute a P90. The text gives the 10% threshold as 0.181 mg/kg, which is 10% of the 1.81 mg/kg reference value.

Update history

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