2005-03 Residues in Honey

Honey is a natural and wholesome product consumed by many people around the world. It is being used as a natural sweetener in food manufacturing practices, cosmetics, and also as a pharmaceutical in the treatment of various human infections.

A food becomes “wholesome” when it meets appropriate nutritional and safety standards as well as specific quality attributes (freshness, flavor, aroma, texture, etc.). While the nutritional and quality aspects of honey are very important, safety of honey is also critical, as it determines the consumer acceptance. The addition of additives and preservatives is not allowed for honey. However, there is a recent concern about the presence of antibiotics and pesticides in certain honey samples. In Canada, regular monitoring of honey products for residues (pesticides, antibiotics, benzaldehyde, phenol, etc.) is conducted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to ensure that any honey or honey product imported to or exported from Canada is safe (CFIA web site, Oct, 2004). Similar residue monitoring programs are present in other parts of the world.

Antibiotics are mainly used in the Apiculture industry to treat bees that are infected with American foulbrood disease caused by Paenibacillus larvae. Some of the commonly used antibiotics in the apiculture industry are tetracycline (in N. America), sulfonamides (in N. America), streptomycin (in Mexico) and chloramphenicol (in China). European legislation does not allow the use of antibiotics in apiculture. Therefore, honey does not have a set of Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) for antibiotics. Compounds such as benzaldehyde and phenol are used in the apiculture industry as bee tranquilizers. The presence of these compounds in honey could lead to changes in quality attributes as well as safety.     

To continue to gain consumer acceptance for honey as a wholesome product, it is important to not have any residues in honey. This could be achieved by conducting good apiculture practices as well as by testing the final honey products for possible contaminants. The most recent honey testing methods involve the testing of the extracts using liquid chromatography with UV spectroscopy, or fluorescence detection techniques, or by mass spectroscopy. Mass spectroscopy provides confirmatory results due to its ability to provide specific structural information of the compound of interest.

CANTEST has the Standard Council of Canada (SCC) accreditation for testing many different types of residues in honey samples in accordance with CFIA standards. Some of these are:

• Nitrofurans
• Benzaldehyde
• Phenol
• Sulfonamides
• Chloramphenicol
• Tetracycline
• Macrolides
• Anthelmintics
• Pesticides