Determination of pesticide residues in honey: a preliminary study from two of Africa’s largest honey producers

Abstract

Background: The presence of pollutants in honey can influence honey bee colony performance and devalue its use for human consumption. Using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), various clean-up methods were evaluated for efficient determination of multiclass pesticide contaminants in honey. The selected clean-up method was optimized and validated and then applied to perform a preliminary study of commercial honey samples from Africa. Results: The most efficient method was primary-secondary amine (PSA) sorbent which was significantly different from the others (P <0.05; average recovery~94 %) and was applied to analyze 96 pesticide residues in 28 retail honey samples from Kenya and Ethiopia. From our preliminary data, a total of 17 pesticide residues were detected at~10-fold below maximum residue limit (MRL) established for food products except for malathion which was detected at almost 2-fold above its acceptable MRL. Conclusions: A highly efficient approach for determining pesticide residues in honey with good recoveries was developed. All residue contaminants were detected at levels well below their acceptable MRLs except malathion suggesting that the retail honey analyzed is safe for human consumption. Although PSA clean-up method was selected as the most efficient for cleaning honey samples, omitting the clean-up step was the most economical approach with potential applicability in the food industry.

Correlation Study of Honey Regarding their Physicochemical Properties and Sugars and Cyclitols Content

“…The pathogens can arrive in honey either via pollen, or due to improper honey manipulation and storage. Moreover, pesticides or their residues can often be present in honey [10].…”

Development of a kinetic spectrophotometric method for insecticide diflubenzuron determination in water and baby food samples

“…Quantitative parameters of the analysis are given in Table 1. (6) where k and k1 are constants proportional to the rate constant of the catalyzed and inhibited reaction, respectively.…”

“…Many analytical methods for determination of diflubenzuron in food, feed and biological matrices have been reported. Due to the high polarity, low volatility and thermolability of diflubenzuron, HPLC has been the method of choice using UV [2][3][4][5][6], FD [7][8][9], MS [10][11][12][13][14], DAD [15] or fluorescence [16][17][18] detection. LC-MS/MS has been used for DFB determination in apple, tangerine and honey samples [19,20].…”

“…Due to the high polarity, low volatility and thermolability of diflubenzuron, HPLC has been the method of choice using UV [2][3][4][5][6], FD [7][8][9], MS [10][11][12][13][14], DAD [15] or fluorescence [16][17][18] detection. LC-MS/MS has been used for DFB determination in apple, tangerine and honey samples [19,20]. Most protocols include solvent extraction of diflubenzuron from the sample followed by clean-up steps, including solid phase extraction procedures [21,22] and, more recently, the QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) approach [23].…”

Synthesis and characterization of phosphocholine chloride‐based three‐component deep eutectic solvent: application in dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction for determination of organothiophosphate pesticides

“…As a result, it is necessary to perform an analytical method to determine pesticides in honey samples. Until now, different instrumental analyses consisting of gas chromatography (GC) 9 high-performance liquid chromatography, 10 and capillary electrophoresis 11 have been used for the determination of pesticides in honey samples. As honey is composed of different carbohydrates, minerals, flavonoids, pigments, and organic acids, its matrix is very complex, so it is necessary to perform a sample preparation step before the instrumental analysis.…”