Assessment of the Ecological Safety of Honey with the Help of “Factor Area” Models

Abstract

The man-made load on the environment and the decrease in biodiversity cause a direct negative environmental impact on the existence of honey bees and beekeeping products. The priority directions of the food industry are the use of high-quality environmentally friendly raw materials and the prevention of the ingress and formation of harmful substances in food products, including honey. This implies the need to develop methods for assessing the environmental safety of the studied raw materials and products. The purpose of this study was to implement a mathematical modeling method for studying the environmental safety of honey. Five types of honey were studied: Robinia, rapeseed, linden, buckwheat, and sunflower. Mathematical models were built according to the following parameters: total activity of β-emitting radionuclides; residues of levomycetin (chloramphenicol), nitrofuran (according to AOZ and AMOZ), metronidazole, and pesticides (according to hexachloran); and the content of water-insoluble substances (mechanical impurities) and heavy metals. On the basis of the obtained data and established quality criteria, calculation graphic models were built. Using algebraic methods, they derived new formulas for calculating quality coefficients. Multivariate analysis and programming methods were used to evaluate honey using mathematical modeling. The most and least ecologically dangerous contaminants and their share of influence for different types of honey were determined based on the complex of research on negative factors. The proposed mathematical models can be implemented for practical use in specialized laboratories as a tool for determining the environmental safety of honey of various botanical origins.