The consultation, set up by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), aims to foster a harmonised approach across Europe on assessing environmental risks of additives in animal feed. No Europe-wide guidance currently exists.

Concern has grown among Europe's food safety officials over the amount of additives and substances in animal feed that may leak into the local environment, such as soil and groundwater.

This, said EFSA, "is a significant issue not only for environmental protection but also for food safety".

The problem is made worse because the same additives are generally used in feed over a long period of time, according to the European Directive on assessing additives in animal nutrition.

An EFSA working group of 13 scientists has spent the last few months devising methods to predict the concentrations of feed additives likely to leak into the environment in different situations.

EFSA's scientific panel on additives and products or substances used in animal feed (FEEDAP) has now drawn up proposed guidelines for stakeholder comments.

"The launching of this public consultation represents an important step which is strongly in the interests of environmental protection and the health and safety of consumers," said FEEDAP chair professor Andrew Chesson.