Agriculture & Food, Volume 13, 2025

Streszczenie: The study aimed to evaluate the nutritional contribution of essential elements: calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and iron (Fe), and assess health risks associated with potentially toxic elements: lithium (Li), strontium (Sr), and arsenic (As) in sheep milk from a moderately disturbed region of Slovakia. Forty individual milk samples were collected by hand milking and analyzed using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The average concentrations of Ca, Mg, Fe, Li, and Sr in milk were 1,355 mg/kg, 114 mg/kg, 1.31 mg/kg, 0.024 mg/kg, and 0.804 mg/kg, respectively. Arsenic concentrations in all analyzed samples were below the limit of detection (LOD). Nutritional analysis showed that daily consumption of 0.3 L of sheep milk could cover 31–58% of Ca and up to 28.5% of Mg recommended dietary allowances (RDA), particularly benefiting younger populations. In contrast, Fe coverage remained below 5% across all age groups. For toxic elements, a comprehensive risk assessment was conducted using estimated daily intake (EDI), hazard quotient (HQ), risk quotient (RQ), and margin of exposure (MOE). Lithium exposure posed the highest relative intake in children aged 3– 10 years, with HQ reaching 0.17 and MOE values around 1800, indicating no acute risk but a noteworthy dietary contribution (up to 16.6% of the provisional reference dose). Strontium levels remained within safe thresholds across all age groups, with HQ values well below 0.04 and MOE exceeding 12,000. Although no individual or combined parameter (HI) exceeded risk thresholds, sheep milk alone contributed up to 61% of the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) for Sr in children. Although none of the toxicological indices (HQ, HI, MOE) indicate exceedance or immediate hazard from milk consumption alone, the relatively high percentage contribution to PTWI (Sr) and p RfD (Li) in high consuming children supports the need to consider cumulative dietary exposure. These findings highlight the dual role of sheep milk as a nutritionally valuable food rich in Ca and Mg, while also emphasizing the need for dietary risk awareness, especially in children, due to its significant contribution to lithium and strontium exposure. Balanced consumption is recommended.