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Pesticide Residues and Metabolites in Greek Honey and Pollen: Bees and Human Health Risk Assessment

Background: Bees encounter a plethora of environmental contaminants during nectar and pollen collection from plants. Consequently, after their entrance into the beehives, the transfer of numerous pollutants to apicultural products is inevitable. Methods: In this context, during the period of 2015–20...

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Autores principales: Kasiotis, Konstantinos M., Zafeiraki, Effrosyni, Manea-Karga, Electra, Anastasiadou, Pelagia, Machera, Kyriaki
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9955768/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36832781
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods12040706
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author Kasiotis, Konstantinos M.
Zafeiraki, Effrosyni
Manea-Karga, Electra
Anastasiadou, Pelagia
Machera, Kyriaki
author_facet Kasiotis, Konstantinos M.
Zafeiraki, Effrosyni
Manea-Karga, Electra
Anastasiadou, Pelagia
Machera, Kyriaki
author_sort Kasiotis, Konstantinos M.
collection PubMed
description Background: Bees encounter a plethora of environmental contaminants during nectar and pollen collection from plants. Consequently, after their entrance into the beehives, the transfer of numerous pollutants to apicultural products is inevitable. Methods: In this context, during the period of 2015–2020, 109 samples of honey, pollen, and beebread were sampled and analyzed for the determination of pesticides and their metabolites. More than 130 analytes were investigated in each sample by applying two validated multiresidue methods (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS). Results: Until the end of 2020, 40 determinations were reported in honey, resulting in a 26% positive to at least one active substance. The concentrations of pesticides ranged from 1.3 ng/g to 785 ng/g honey. For seven active substances in honey and pollen, maximum residue limits (MRLs) exceedances were observed. Coumaphos, imidacloprid, acetamiprid, amitraz metabolites (DMF and DMPF), and tau-fluvalinate were the predominant compounds detected in honey, while several pyrethroids such as λ-cyhalothrin, cypermethrin, and cyfluthrin were also found. Pollen and beebread, as expected, accumulated a higher number of active substances and metabolites (32 in total), exhibiting almost double the number of detections. Conclusions: Although the above findings verify the occurrence of numerous pesticide and metabolite residues in both honey and pollen, the human risk assessment in the majority of the cases does not raise any concerns, and the same applies to bee risk assessment.
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spelling pubmed-99557682023-02-25 Pesticide Residues and Metabolites in Greek Honey and Pollen: Bees and Human Health Risk Assessment Kasiotis, Konstantinos M. Zafeiraki, Effrosyni Manea-Karga, Electra Anastasiadou, Pelagia Machera, Kyriaki Foods Article Background: Bees encounter a plethora of environmental contaminants during nectar and pollen collection from plants. Consequently, after their entrance into the beehives, the transfer of numerous pollutants to apicultural products is inevitable. Methods: In this context, during the period of 2015–2020, 109 samples of honey, pollen, and beebread were sampled and analyzed for the determination of pesticides and their metabolites. More than 130 analytes were investigated in each sample by applying two validated multiresidue methods (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS). Results: Until the end of 2020, 40 determinations were reported in honey, resulting in a 26% positive to at least one active substance. The concentrations of pesticides ranged from 1.3 ng/g to 785 ng/g honey. For seven active substances in honey and pollen, maximum residue limits (MRLs) exceedances were observed. Coumaphos, imidacloprid, acetamiprid, amitraz metabolites (DMF and DMPF), and tau-fluvalinate were the predominant compounds detected in honey, while several pyrethroids such as λ-cyhalothrin, cypermethrin, and cyfluthrin were also found. Pollen and beebread, as expected, accumulated a higher number of active substances and metabolites (32 in total), exhibiting almost double the number of detections. Conclusions: Although the above findings verify the occurrence of numerous pesticide and metabolite residues in both honey and pollen, the human risk assessment in the majority of the cases does not raise any concerns, and the same applies to bee risk assessment. MDPI 2023-02-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9955768/ /pubmed/36832781 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods12040706 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kasiotis, Konstantinos M.
Zafeiraki, Effrosyni
Manea-Karga, Electra
Anastasiadou, Pelagia
Machera, Kyriaki
Pesticide Residues and Metabolites in Greek Honey and Pollen: Bees and Human Health Risk Assessment
title Pesticide Residues and Metabolites in Greek Honey and Pollen: Bees and Human Health Risk Assessment
title_full Pesticide Residues and Metabolites in Greek Honey and Pollen: Bees and Human Health Risk Assessment
title_fullStr Pesticide Residues and Metabolites in Greek Honey and Pollen: Bees and Human Health Risk Assessment
title_full_unstemmed Pesticide Residues and Metabolites in Greek Honey and Pollen: Bees and Human Health Risk Assessment
title_short Pesticide Residues and Metabolites in Greek Honey and Pollen: Bees and Human Health Risk Assessment
title_sort pesticide residues and metabolites in greek honey and pollen: bees and human health risk assessment
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9955768/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36832781
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods12040706
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