Investigation and human health risk assessment of multi-class veterinary antibiotics in honey from South Korea

Antibiotic residues in honey constitute potential threats to human health. To ensure food safety, a total of 26 antibiotics method based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the determination of antibiotics was validated in honey. Sample preparation consists in acid hydrolysis and dispersive-solid phase extract clean-up methods. The primary secondary amine sorbent yielded the highest recoveries. All antibiotics showed good linearity, with correlation coefficients of more than 0.993. The method yielded limits of detection of 0.1-6.8 mu g L-1, limits of quantification (LOQ) of 0.3-20.7 mu g L-1, and recoveries of 70.5-107.4 %. The concentrations of individual antibiotics except chlortetracycline and tetracycline were below 100 ng mL-1. The chlortetracycline (38.2 %) and tetracycline (31.3 %) accounted for the highest antibiotic residues in honey samples. The estimation of exposure and risk assessment revealed that the upper residue levels of tetracyclineclass exceeded the acceptable daily intake by 24.3-381.5 times. In particular, chlortetracycline alone accounted for 70 % of the hazard index, which was 4.62 in children and 2.26 in adults. This study calls attention to the human health risk of tetracyclines in honey consumption.

Automated summary

The study validated a method for detecting 26 antibiotics in honey and found that chlorotetracycline and tetracycline had the highest residues. The upper residue levels of tetracycline class exceeded acceptable daily intake by several times. In particular, chlorotetracycline accounted for a large proportion of the hazard index.