Canale Angelo, Canovai Roberto, Cosci Francesca, Giannotti Paolo, Benelli Giovanni
a University of Pisa , Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment , via del Borghetto, 80 , I-56124 Pisa , Italy.
Food Addit Contam Part A Chem Anal Control Expo Risk Assess. 2014;31(5):905-9. doi: 10.1080/19440049.2014.893590. Epub 2014 Apr 10.
Honey is an ancient food that has always been considered a natural and healthy product, free of contaminants. However, it can contain toxic substances, such as antibiotics, pesticides and heavy metals, as well as foreign matter (e.g. arthropod body parts and microbial contaminants), working as allergens and vectors of human pathogens. In this study we used the filth test to evaluate the abundance of foreign matter in 70 Italian honeys, including Castanea sativa, Robinia pseudoacacia and multi-floral honeys, the latter both from small beekeeping farms and industrial producers. The abundance of different foreign matter varied in honeys, with a higher number of carbon particles and other inorganic fragments, followed by fragments of animal origin. This latter included insects (Diptera Brachycera larvae and Strepsiptera), their cuticular fragments (mainly Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera), mites (mainly Glycyphagidae, Acaridae and Tarsonemidae) and mammal hairs. No differences were recorded in the abundance of foreign matter among different kinds of honey, as well as between honeys from small and large-sized producers. Foreign matter found in honey provided functional information to evaluate honey quality standards in apiary, honey extraction and packaging phases. Overall, the filth test method applied to honey quality control can be considered an excellent tool, also for small beekeeping farms, since it allows rapid and frequent quality checking of the production process. This method is cheap, requires minimal instrumental equipment and results can be interpreted quickly.
蜂蜜是一种古老的食物，一直被视为天然健康且无污染的产品。然而，它可能含有抗生素、农药和重金属等有毒物质，以及杂质（如节肢动物身体部位和微生物污染物），这些物质可作为过敏原和人类病原体的载体。在本研究中，我们采用污物检验法评估了70种意大利蜂蜜中的杂质含量，这些蜂蜜包括板栗蜜、刺槐蜜和多花蜂蜜，后者既有来自小型养蜂场的，也有来自工业生产商的。不同蜂蜜中不同杂质的含量各不相同，碳颗粒和其他无机碎片的数量较多，其次是动物来源的碎片。后者包括昆虫（双翅目短角亚目幼虫和捻翅目昆虫）、它们的表皮碎片（主要是鞘翅目、膜翅目和鳞翅目）、螨虫（主要是粉螨科、粉螨科和跗线螨科）和哺乳动物毛发。不同种类蜂蜜之间以及小型和大型生产商的蜂蜜之间，在杂质含量上均未发现差异。蜂蜜中发现的杂质为评估养蜂场、蜂蜜提取和包装阶段的蜂蜜质量标准提供了功能性信息。总体而言，应用于蜂蜜质量控制的污物检验法可被视为一种出色的工具，对小型养蜂场也是如此，因为它能对生产过程进行快速且频繁的质量检查。该方法成本低廉，所需仪器设备最少，且结果能迅速得到解读。
