Occurrence of Glyphosate and Other Polar Pesticides in Honey from Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna Regions in Italy: Three-Year Monitoring Results
Elena Butovskaya,
Mara Gasparini,
Barbara Angelone,
Gabriella Cancemi,
Vito Tranquillo,
Giovanni Prestini,
Filippo Bosi,
Simonetta Menotta
Affiliations
Elena Butovskaya
Food and Feed Chemistry Department, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna “Bruno Ubertini” (IZSLER), via A. Bianchi 9, 25124 Brescia, Italy
Mara Gasparini
Food and Feed Chemistry Department, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna “Bruno Ubertini” (IZSLER), via A. Bianchi 9, 25124 Brescia, Italy
Barbara Angelone
Food and Feed Chemistry Department, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna “Bruno Ubertini” (IZSLER), via A. Bianchi 9, 25124 Brescia, Italy
Gabriella Cancemi
Food and Feed Chemistry Department, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna “Bruno Ubertini” (IZSLER), via A. Bianchi 9, 25124 Brescia, Italy
Vito Tranquillo
Programmazione dei Servizi e Controllo di Gestione, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna (IZSLER), via A. Bianchi 9, 25124 Brescia, Italy
Giovanni Prestini
Dipartimento Veterinario e Sicurezza degli Alimenti di Origine Animale, ATS della BRIANZA, Viale Elvezia 2, 20900 Monza, Italy
Filippo Bosi
Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica, Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale della Romagna–Ravenna, via Fiume Montone Abbandonato 134, 48100 Ravenna, Italy
Simonetta Menotta
Food and Feed Chemistry Department, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna “Bruno Ubertini” (IZSLER), via A. Bianchi 9, 25124 Brescia, Italy
Intensive agricultural practices, such as pesticides use, may negatively affect bee health and hive products. Glyphosate is one of the most widely used polar pesticides applied in crops for weed control. In this study, honey samples, collected from beekeeping farms located in the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions in Italy in the framework of regional monitoring plans activated from 2020 to 2022, were analyzed for the presence of residues of polar pesticides. The analytical method based on ion chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry was applied to quantify glyphosate, glufosinate, ethephon, fosetyl aluminum, and their related metabolites. Residues of glyphosate were detected in around 28% of analyzed honey samples. Observations on the distribution of the honey-production-site locations suggest that honey samples originating from the provinces within the Lombardy region, where the agricultural sector is highly developed, were more affected by glyphosate contamination than the samples collected from the areas with low agricultural activity, where no glyphosate residues were detected over the three years of the monitoring program.
