Urban Honey: A Review of Its Physical, Chemical, and Biological Parameters That Connect It to the Environment

Abstract

Humans mainly use the land for agriculture and housing, resulting in the loss of natural habitat and a decrease in the number of species, including wild bees. The reduction of wild bees generates several negative consequences for the agricultural and ecosystem contexts, although sometimes the farming reduces the probability of abandonment of the land. In parallel, urban beekeeping has emerged and consolidated as one of the current trends, while the consumption of honey from urban environments is also growing. Current scientific literature establishes different physical, chemical, and biological parameters which evaluate the quality of honey products and its environment. The review carried out here collects the various compounds contained in this source-dependent food matrix from anthropogenic activities in the sampling area. Using gas and liquid chromatography and spectrometry, the main physicochemical parameters have been detected, 27 chemical elements, of which 6 are heavy elements, 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and pesticides (organochlorine pesticides and neonicotinoids). Additionally, their total phenolic and microbiological content has been typified. This analysis can help to frame the main characteristics to evaluate this universal product, whose consumption began with the first settlers of the world, and its properties have been evolving as well as the characteristics of the production systems.