PAHs presence and source apportionment in honey samples: Fingerprint identification of rural and urban contamination by means of chemometric approach

The quality of honey is assessed through the determination of some commodity parameters: a certain importance is to be attributed to the absence of contaminating residues, in particular of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). This paper deeply investigates the presence of 22 PAHs in 57 honey samples collected in Central Italy and identifies the possible source apportionment and fingerprint identification by DLLME-GC-MS analysis and a chemometric approach. Cluster Analysis and Principal Component Analysis have allowed to identify the main PAHs responsible of the contamination, benzo[a]anthracene and phenanthrene, characteristics pollutants of areas constantly exposed. The entire database has been compared to similar ones present in literature, particularly data from Serbia and Belgrado samples. The PCA applied to overall the data confirms the combustion to be the main contamination source in Italian samples whereas highlights the importance of the role of naphthalene, added during beekeeping practices in the other data-set.

Automated summary

The quality of honey is evaluated based on certain commodity parameters, with a emphasis on the absence of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). This study investigated the presence of 22 PAHs in 57 honey samples collected in Central Italy and identified the main contaminants and their sources. The results indicated that benzo[a]anthracene and phenanthrene were the main pollutants in the samples, suggesting constant exposure. Combustion was found to be the primary contamination source in Italian samples, while the addition of naphthalene during beekeeping practices played a significant role in other samples.