title: The occurrence of pesticides and persistent organic pollutants in Italian organic honeys from different productive areas in relation to potential environmental pollution.
abstract: Bee products, such as honey, are widely consumed as food and consumer interest is currently oriented towards organic foods. Regarding this, the European Commission establishes that the qualification of organic honey and other beekeeping products as being from organic production is closely bound with the characteristics of hive treatments as well as the quality of the environment. Agricultural contamination with pesticides is a challenging problem that needs to be fully addressed, in particular in the field of organic production systems. In this study, the occurrence of different classes of contaminants selected as representative of potential contamination sources were investigated in 59 organic honeys: organochlorines, OCs; organophosphates, OPs; polychlorobiphenyls, PCBs and polybromodiphenylethers, PBDEs. A method based on Accelerated Solvent Extraction with "in line" clean-up and GC-MS/MS detection was developed to detect contaminants. Residues of many pesticides were found in most of the samples investigated. The majority of honey samples contained at least one of the pesticides, even if their concentrations were found to be lower than its MRL. Diazinon, Mevinphos, Coumaphos, Chlorpyrifos and Quinoxyfen were the residues frequently detected in samples coming from the apple and citrus orchard areas. Furthermore, the results of the present study show that the presence of the residue in organic honey may also be affected by the geographical area (e.g. the presence of an agricultural system) confirming honey bee and beehive matrices as appropriate sentinels for monitoring contamination in the environment. The optimised method proved to be simple and rapid, requiring small sample sizes and minimising solvent consumption, due to the ASE having an "in line" clean-up step.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Science and Public Health, University of Milan, Via Celoria 10, 20133, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Chiesa
authors.affiliation: Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety, University of Milan, Via Celoria 10, 20133, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: G F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Labella
authors.affiliation: Centre for Applied Studies in the Sustainable Management and Protection of the Mountain Environment, Ge.S.Di.Mont., University of Milan, Via Morino 8, 25048, Edolo, Brescia, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Giorgi
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Science and Public Health, University of Milan, Via Celoria 10, 20133, Milan, Italy. Electronic address: sara.panseri@unimi.it.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Panseri
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Science and Public Health, University of Milan, Via Celoria 10, 20133, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pavlovic
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of Catanzaro Magna Graecia, Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bonacci
authors.affiliation: Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety, University of Milan, Via Celoria 10, 20133, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Arioli
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D005506:Food Contamination; D006722:Honey / Q000032:analysis*; D007558:Italy; D010575:Pesticides / Q000032:analysis*; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D010575:Pesticides; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds
keywords: Accelerated solvent extraction (ASE); Contamination sources; Food safety; Organic honey; Pesticide residue analysis; Triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS)