Gunes 2021 - Yalova chestnut honey metals

Gunes measured arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury residues in 27 chestnut honey samples from Yalova province, Turkey, and assessed non-carcinogenic intake risk. The paper is direct honey occurrence evidence, with all four measured metals reported in ug/kg and summarized as lowest, highest, and average concentrations. The author concluded that measured residues were below Turkish Food Codex limits and that the calculated target hazard quotients were very low for the assumed honey intake.

Key numbers

Heavy-metal residue levels were reported in ug/kg honey.

The paper also compares the Yalova averages with selected literature values after converting to mg/kg: Pb 0.021 mg/kg, Cd 0.0011 mg/kg, As 0.0005 mg/kg, and Hg 0.0214 mg/kg.

Methods (brief)

The study collected 27 raw chestnut honey samples from seven common beekeeping locations used by Yalova Beekeepers Association members. Heavy-metal analysis used microwave digestion of 0.5 g honey with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide, followed by ICP-OES measurement of Pb, Cd, As, and Hg. The risk assessment calculated target hazard quotients using a daily honey intake of 3.3 g for a 70 kg adult.

Implications

Certification: This is routeable occurrence evidence for chestnut honey and the broader honey product category. The source reports Pb, Cd, total As, and total Hg, but does not report inorganic arsenic or methylmercury.

Courses: The paper provides a compact example of translating measured honey residues into intake-risk metrics while preserving the source concentration basis.

App: The values are useful as Turkey-market honey context for Pb, Cd, total arsenic, and total mercury.

Microbiome (if applicable): Not addressed.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• honey
• honey
• lead
• cadmium
• arsenic
• mercury

Verification notes

The PDF title, author, DOI, year, journal, license notice, methods, and heavy-metal values were read from the auto-fetched PDF. The paper’s table labels As and Hg without speciation, so they are treated as total arsenic and total mercury rather than iAs or MeHg. The source is internally inconsistent on the analytical instrument: the methods section and instrument table describe ICP-OES, while the results prose says ICP-MS. This source page follows the methods section and instrument table. The source is also internally inconsistent on the regulatory frame: the abstract says residues were below Turkish Food Codex limits, while later discussion says there is no designated maximum honey limit in the Turkish Food Codex.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.