Honey residues monitoring, samples collected from three of the East African’s countries (Uganda, Kenya, and SouthSudan) markets

Abstract

Beekeeping plays an important role in enhancing food security and sustainable agriculture as it contributes significantly to enhancing production and productivity of crops. Honey and other hive products contribute to income generation for some countries, and for countries where pollination services exist, beekeeping is a strategic enterprise. A major challenge that African honey producers face is access to both local and international markets due to underdeveloped marketing systems and inadequate quality control. The aim of this study was to screen for existence of pesticides and anti-biotic residues in the African beehive products from selected markets and to determine whether it is within the limits of EU range of Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) or not. Secondly to investigate whether the honey from those selected markets meets minimum quality and labelling requirements based on EU and CODEX Standards. A market survey was done in three countries of east Africa (Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan), and 36 samples were collected from three different markets from different region in each country. Analysis was conducted using Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for pesticides residue analysis, and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) for antibiotic analysis. The result shown that none of targeted organochlorine nor organo-phoshate pesticides appeared in the tested samples. There were also no targeted antibiotics were present in the samples. This result could be an indication that either the farmers and honey producers in those countries (Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan) abide by the food Safety measures and procedures, or there is a limited utilization of the targeted drugs and pesticides in study countries.