Mercury in honey from the Marche region (central Italy). Risk assessment from human consumption and its use as bioindicator of environmental pollution

Federico Girolametti; Silvia Illuminati; Anna Annibaldi; Behixhe Ajdini; Matteo Fanelli; Cristina Truzzi

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20502

Mercury in honey from the Marche region (central Italy). Risk assessment from human consumption and its use as bioindicator of environmental pollution

Heliyon. 2023 Sep 28;9(10):e20502. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20502. eCollection 2023 Oct.

Authors

Federico Girolametti¹, Silvia Illuminati¹, Anna Annibaldi¹, Behixhe Ajdini¹, Matteo Fanelli¹, Cristina Truzzi¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Brecce Bianche, 60131 Ancona, Italy.

Abstract

Honey is a natural product made by honeybees (Apis mellifera) from nectar or honeydew. It is a very popular and appreciated product all over the world as it represents a rapidly available energy source and exerts several beneficial properties for humans. However, it has been demonstrated that honey can be contaminated by potentially toxic elements (PTEs) of natural or anthropogenic origin. Among them, mercury (Hg) represents one of the most dangerous for its toxicity and its capacity to biomagnify along the trophic web. In the present study, 100 honey samples from the Marche Region (Central Italy) produced in the year 2021, were analyzed by thermal decomposition amalgamation atomic absorption spectrometry to determine the Hg content. The overall mean concentration was 0.2 ± 0.2 μg kg^-1. The results showed that no statistically significant differences were found in Hg content among honey from different pollen origin, but honeydew had a significantly higher Hg content with respect to all other honey samples (0.6 ± 0.3 μg kg^-1). The Hg content in honey depends mainly on local pollution, while geographical origin did not play a key role. Furthermore, considering the regulatory limits and provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWIs) identified by FAO/WHO, the Hg Hazard Quotient (HQ) measurement revealed that this product is safe for human consumption.

Keywords: Food safety; Italy; Risk assessment; honey; mercury.