Comparison of the dietary cobalt intake in three different Australian diets.

Differences in the dietary intake of cobalt were assessed for vegans, lacto-ovo-vegetarian and non-vegetarian Australians using food intake logs, and daily or average trend recall over three months. A significant decrease in cobalt intake was observed for the lacto-ovo-vegetarian population compared with the intake in vegans and omnivores. There is no RDI for cobalt, however, the cobalt intake of Australians was similar to that reported in other countries. Microflora above the terminal ileum have been shown to produce significant amounts of biologically available vitamin B12. This study was unable to demonstrate a correlation between elemental cobalt intake and serum vitamin B12 concentrations in humans, as has been shown in vitro.