Assessment of pesticide residues in honey and their prospective risk to consumers in Egypt

Abstract EN

Honeybees, Apis mellifera L.

(Hymenoptera: Apidae) is one of the most important tasks of pollinating agricultural crops.

The aim of this study is to detect of the pesticides remain in honeybee samples gathered from Egypt and compare the obtained results to the published Maximum Residue Limits (MRL’s) values.

Fifty honey samples were randomly gathered from local marketplaces of five Governorates viz: (Cairo, Giza, Qalyubia, Alexandria and Gharbia) in Egypt during 2020.

The current study was performed to assess the residues levels of 38 pesticides in the major groups of pesticides (organophosphorus, organochlorine and Synthetic Pyrethroids) representative, using method based on the QuEChERS.

The recovery results found ranged from 80% to 104 %.

The results indicated that, total contamination with pesticides residues was 24%, dominant pesticides that were in the samples belonged to the organochlorine and organophosphorus groups.

There are no demonstrable residues of synthetic pyrethroids pesticides in all gathered samples.

All samples of honey are matched to MRLs.

Data showed that, exposing to these pesticides in highly connected with evaluating the potential health risks.

The acceptable daily intakes of the pesticide (ADIs) were so higher than estimated daily intake (EDI), which prove that consume honey has the lowest toxicological risk.

This study confirms the need for recurrently monitoring scheme for pesticide residues in honey at the national concentration to protect the health of consume.