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

2022; Elsevier BV; Volume: 382; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.132361

1873-7072

Sergio Passarella, Ettore Guerriero, Luisangela Quici, Giuseppe Ianiri, Marina Cerasa, Ivan Notardonato, Carmela Protano, Matteo Vitali, Mario Vincenzo Russo, Antonio De Cristofaro, Pasquale Avino,

Insect and Pesticide Research

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.