A review on Api-products: current scenario of potential contaminants and their food safety concerns

Despite being considered a ‘superfood’, Api-products (Honeybee-derived products) are also linked with heterogeneous health risk factors such as toxic heavy metals, pathogens, antibiotics and pesticide residues due to unscrupulous beekeeping practices. The present work is a holistic approach to extensively studying and mapping various contaminants in Api-products. Thus, this provides an insight into their associated health hazards, such as placental damage, bronchitis hyperactivity, malignancy, renal lesion, neural degeneration, various allergens, etc. According to our findings, Api-products were composed of various perilous components listed down. Toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and lead were detected in abundance. Lead (120–487000 μg/kg), cadmium (30–25400 μg/kg) and arsenic (9.3–1370 μg/kg) were spotted in bee pollen followed by propolis (cadmium, 30–930 μg/kg) and honey (lead, 1.71–2530 μg/kg) above the acceptable level. Additionally, bifenthrin, triadimefon, lambda-cyhalothrin, and chlorpyrifos were major pesticides found in bee products, except in royal jelly. Also, honey and royal jelly samples were predominantly detected with antibiotics such as tetracyclines, quinolone, nitroimidazole, and sulfonamide. Pathogens (C. botulinum, Bacillus spp., Zygosaccharomyces, Aspergillus spp.) were mostly identified in bee pollen and honey. Still, there is a shortage of evidence related to royal jelly and bee bread which signifies huge research gaps. Furthermore, the current paper emphasizes various detection techniques, safety issues, and toxicological concerns related to Api-products, which alarms the urgency of establishing global safety regulations in the future.