Overview
Ligor and colleagues measured 15 elements by ICP-MS in 45 honeys (33 Polish, 12 from seven other countries) and grouped them by cluster analysis. Cadmium and lead never rose above the background equivalent concentration, so they are reported only as non-detects. Arsenic was found in 10 of 45 samples at very low levels.
Key numbers
- Arsenic mean 0.06 µg/kg, maximum 0.49 µg/kg; median 0.00 (Table 2).
- Cadmium and lead below the background equivalent concentration in all samples (Section 2.2).
- Nickel mean 13.34 µg/kg, maximum 266.00 µg/kg in Table 2, although the text says two honeydew honeys exceeded 400 µg/kg.
- Chromium mean 0.31 µg/kg, maximum 3.76 µg/kg (Table 2).
Methods (brief)
Microwave digestion (HNO3:H2O2) or direct 1% HNO3 dilution, ICP-MS with helium collision cell. LODs are stated per litre of solution; spike accuracy 95.7 to 101.2%; a plant reference material result sits in a supplement not filed here.
Evidence Fitness
Sensitive method, but only pooled descriptive statistics are printed; per-sample and per-origin values are in Supplementary Table S1, which is not available. The non-detect limits for cadmium and lead are solution-based and cannot be stated per kilogram. Honey is a proxy for pancake-syrup and does not link that page.