Distribution, pollution status of metals and human health risk evaluation in honey: Chemometric approach

Abstract

Ethiopia is one of the top honey-producing countries in Africa, with a diversity of floral sources for bees supported by different ecosystems. Studying the levels of metals in honey is essential for ensuring the quality and safety of honey and managing environmental contamination, which ultimately contributes to the well-being of both individuals and communities. Thus, this study was designed to determine the concentration of Cr, Mn, Zn, Ni, Fe, Cu, Co, Cd and Pb in bee honey and stingless bee honey using a flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer (FAAS) after being digested with a mixture of 1 mL of HNO3 and 4 mL of HClO4.The contents of trace metals (mg/kg) for Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Cd were varied from 0.5 to 1.33, 0.04–0.1, 0.83–1.74, BDL–0.60, 0.35–0.60, 0.020–0.12, 0.35–0.69, and BDL-0.32 in bee honey and 0.5–1.02, 0.03–0.11, 0.59–1.86, 0.17–0.35, 0.35–0.78, 0.038–0.13, and 0.32–0.44 in stingless bee honey, respectively. It was found that Cd and Pb in both bee and stingless bee honey were below the detection limit. For adults, the target hazard quotient (THQ) and hazard index (HI) values were found to be below 1, which indicates a lower level of noncarcinogenic risk due to honey consumption. The carcinogenic risks for all samples were lower than the maximum tolerable range. Multivariate analyses, including principal component and cluster analysis, were applied to assist in the analysis of metallic data, and confirmed the association between metals in samples. Therefore, the consumption of honey in the study areas does not cause any carcinogenic or non-carcinogenic health risks to the local population.