Geographical discrimination of Italian honey by multi-element analysis with a chemometric approach

In this study the concentrations of K, Ca, Mg, Na, Al, Zn, Fe, Mn, Cu, Cr, Ni, Se, Pb, Cd, and As in 39 honey samples of different botanical (orange-blossom, lemon-blossom, chestnut, eucalyptus, acacia, sulla and wildflower honeys) and geographical (Sicily and Calabria, Italy) origin were determined by ICP-OES and ICP-MS. The most abundant minerals decreased in the following order: K (mean value: 1.57 mg g−1) > Ca (0.2 mg g−1) > Mg (0.121 mg g−1) > Na (0.092 mg g−1). Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) values and benchmark levels were employed to assess the honey quality and safety. The data excluded toxicological risks: for an adult of 60 kg, a daily intake of 2 g of honey covered maximum 0.40% of Tolerable Weekly Intake (TWI) for Al, 0.33% of Benchmark Dose of 1% Extra Risk (BMDL01) for Pb, and 0.07% of Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) for Ni. Mineral content marks the differences in honey samples from different geographical origin despite the botanical factor weight and can be used as a tool to assess the traceability of honeys. The discrimination between Sicilian and Calabrian honeys was achieved by Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and also the results of Canonical Discriminant Analysis (CDA) indicate that the 100% of total samples are correctly classified. This research contributes to the studies to determine the geographical origin of honeys.