Honeybee products as potential bioindicators for heavy metal contamination in northern Vietnam

Abstract

Contamination of heavy metals (As, Cd, Hg, Pb and Sn) in honeybee Products (Apis cerana) from Northern Vietnam is determined. The study was carried out in two main harvesting seasons of beekeeper farms (April and October), over two years (2018-2019). A total of 72 samples from 24 honeybee hives from 8 provinces and one City were collected. The results showed thai the quality of three Products in nearly all research sites were met the standards in accordance with the national technical regulation on the limits of heavy metal contamination in food of the Vietnamese Health Ministry, except for the pollen and beeswax from HY2 site.