Distribution of POPs, pesticides and antibiotic residues in organic honeys from different production areas

ABSTRACT

Demand for honey is increasing, especially if it is organic and if its nutritional properties are linked to untreated environments in order to guarantee quality for health. Sources of contamination of honey can be divided into environmental and apicultural. Therefore, the distribution of persistent organic pollutants, pesticides and antibiotic residues from geographical areas with different contamination sources (high anthropic impact, intensive farming, husbandry and low anthropic impact) was investigated in order to confirm the potential transfer of xenobiotics into the supply chain and to give beekeepers tools for the selection of areas dedicated to organic production. The presence of polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ether and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons was confirmed, not only in proximity to highly urbanised centres, where the concentrations were higher, but in all environment contexts, confirming their ubiquity. No antibiotics or neonicotinoids were detected in 95 organic honeys, demonstrating the absence of apicultural treatments and consequently the good quality of honey of different areas. These results are important due to the undefined regulatory European situation on honey antibiotic limits.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Organic honey
• pesticides
• antibiotics
• triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS)
• LC-Orbitrap
• food safety

Acknowledgements

This work was partially funded according to the project: ‘Distribution and risk assessment of xenobiotics in different foods of animal origin and their role for food safety’ – Piano di Sostegno alla Ricerca 2017 – Linea 2 – Azione A.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.