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All 114 Wild Boar Livers Exceeded EU PFAS Limits in a German Dataset

Wild boar in the Bavarian Forest, Germany
Research · Other research

A German assessment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) found that all 114 wild boar (Sus scrofa) liver samples exceeded at least the European Union maximum levels for PFOS and the sum of four regulated PFAS. Among 152 meat samples, 19—12.5%—exceeded at least one applicable EU maximum level.

PFAS are a large group of human-made chemicals used in many industrial and consumer products. Many are extremely persistent in the environment and can accumulate in organisms; wild boar are useful bioindicators because their omnivorous diet and position in the food web can expose them to contamination from several sources.

The study evaluated 266 samples from several German federal states, mostly from 2023. Researchers analysed data for PFOS, PFOA, PFNA and PFHxS. The arithmetic mean concentration of the four substances combined was 5.18 µg/kg in meat and 448 µg/kg in liver; median concentrations were 1.24 and 339 µg/kg, respectively.

Boxplots of PFAS concentrations in wild boar meat with red lines marking EU maximum levels
PFAS concentrations in 152 wild boar meat samples. Red lines mark the applicable EU maximum levels. Figure 1 from Brossmann, Valentin & Brunn (2026), Environmental Sciences Europe, CC BY 4.0.

PFOS accumulated most strongly in liver

PFOS dominated most samples and accumulated particularly strongly in liver. The median combined PFAS concentration in liver was roughly 250 times that in meat. Even the least contaminated liver sample exceeded the EU limit for the combined four PFAS, while the most contaminated reached 3,494 µg/kg.

Boxplots of PFAS concentrations in wild boar liver with red lines marking EU maximum levels
PFAS concentrations in 114 wild boar liver samples. Red lines mark the applicable EU maximum levels. Figure 2 from Brossmann, Valentin & Brunn (2026), Environmental Sciences Europe, CC BY 4.0.

Liver produced the highest dietary exposure estimates

The authors also assessed dietary exposure using the European Food Safety Authority’s tolerable weekly intake. Under their consumption assumptions, average wild-boar-meat consumers exceeded this threshold for 3 of 152 samples, while the modelled threshold was exceeded for 70 of 152 samples among heavy consumers. For liver, the corresponding figures were 106 of 114 for average consumers and all 114 for heavy consumers. The calculations concern long-term dietary exposure rather than an immediate effect from a single meal.

Altötting stood out as a PFAS hotspot

The three meat samples that would have exceeded the tolerable weekly intake for average consumers all came from Altötting in Bavaria, Germany, a known PFAS hotspot linked to historical fluoropolymer production. In that district, PFOA rather than PFOS dominated several samples, unlike the general pattern in the dataset. The study also found that 51 meat samples remained below the EU maximum levels but would still have exceeded the tolerable weekly intake under the heavy-consumption scenario, showing that legal marketability and long-term dietary exposure are not the same measure. The authors caution that exact geographic origin was unavailable for some samples, including some obtained from retail outlets, so not every sample could be assigned securely to a specific German region.

Sources and image credit

  1. Brossmann, M., Valentin, I., & Brunn, H. (2026). An assessment of PFAS contamination in wild boar meat and liver. Environmental Sciences Europe, 38, 90.Primary open-access study, published 4 April 2026. The dataset comprised 152 meat and 114 liver samples; all liver samples and 19 meat samples exceeded at least one applicable EU maximum level.

Image: Armatus1995 — wild boar in the Bavarian Forest, Germany, photographed 20 February 2015; representative species image. Source: Wikimedia Commons. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

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