Occurrence of perfluoroalkyl substances in cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s milk – dietary intake and risk assessment

Abstract

Introduction: Milk from cows, goats and sheep was analysed in terms of content of fourteen perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). Material and Methods: Altogether, 73 milk samples from cows (n = 38), goats (n = 20) and sheep (n = 15) were collected from various regions of Poland. Concentrations of analytes were determined using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Results: The lower-bound sum of four PFAS (Σ4 PFASs) concentrations (perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid, perfluorononanoic acid and perfluorohexanesulfonic acid) were highest in sheep’s (0.0055 μg/kg), lower in goat’s (0.0046 μg/kg), and lowest in cow’s milk (0.0008 μg/kg). Goat’s and sheep’s milk was statistically significantly more contaminated than cow’s milk. None of the samples exceeded the indicative values set by Commission Recommendation (EU) 2022/1431, and even the maximum detected concentrations were an order of magnitude lower. The most frequently detected was linear PFOS, which was found in 33%, 76% and 93% of cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s milk samples, respectively. Based on mean upper-bound Σ4 PFAS concentrations and average milk consumption, the estimated intake of Σ4 PFASs ranged from 0.153 to 0.266 ng/kg body weight (b.w.) for children and from 0.050 to 0.88 ng/kg b.w. for adults, which indicates that exposure is very low and is merely <7% of the tolerable weekly intake (TWI) for children and <2% of the TWI for adults. Conclusion: Regardless of the milk type, the intake of PFASs via consumption of Polish milk does not contribute significantly to the overall PFAS intake of either adults or children.