Antibiotics in honey: a comprehensive review on occurrence and analytical methodologies

Honey is a food of great nutritional importance and has always been used for human consumption. The production of honey and other beekeeping products depends on the proper functioning of this extremely important sector, as it has a direct impact on other sectors such as agriculture. The decline in bee colony numbers has been linked, among other factors, to bacterial diseases affecting bees, including American and European foulbrood, and Nosema spp. disease. In this matter, prophylactic or therapeutic use of veterinary drugs in apiculture is common but can lead to their accumulation in bees and in honey. Consumption of contaminated honey can have adverse effects such as allergic or hypersensitivity reactions, carcinogenicity, reproductive effects, and teratogenicity. Commission Regulation (EU) N ^⍛ 37/2010 sets MRLs for antibiotics in various foods, but these limits are not set for api-products. The lack of harmonized rules has led some countries to set recommended concentrations and minimum performance limits. Nonetheless, to achieve this goal, development of accurate and precise analytical methodologies is crucial. In recent years, the analysis of antibiotics in honey has led to the development of methods in an extensive range of families, including aminoglycosides, amphenicols, lincosamides, macrolides, nitroimidazoles, quinolones, sulfonamides, tetracyclines and nitrofurans. This review work entails an in-depth exploration of occurrence studies, extraction methodologies, and analytical techniques for the determination of antibiotics in apiculture products. It was found that the most used extraction methods include solid-phase extraction, dispersed solid or liquid phase extraction and QuEChERS. Due to the complexity of the honey matrix, samples are often diluted or acidified using McIlvaine buffer, H ₂O, MeOH, acidified ACN and TCA solution. This is usually followed by a purification step using SPE cartridges or PSA. Golden analytical methodologies include high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (MS/MS) with Orbitrap or Q-ToF detectors.