Proceeding of Veterinary and Animal Science Days 2016, 8th- 10th June, Milan, Italy 

HAF © 2013 

Vol. III, No. 1s  ISSN: 2283-3927 

   

 

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Keywords 

Pesticide residues, analytical 

chemistry, mass spectrometry, 

honey. 

 

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 

Giuseppe Federico Labella 

giuseppe.labella@unimi.it 

 

JOURNAL HOME PAGE 

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Comparison between Accelerated Solvent 

Extraction (ASE) with clean up in-line and 

Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, 

and Safe (QuEChERS) extraction in honey. 

G.F. Labella a*, K. Bousova b, L. Hollosib, F. Ariolia 

 

 

a Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety, University of 
Milan, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy 

b Special Solution Center Europe, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Im Steingrund 4, 
63303, Dreieich, Germany 

 

Abstract 

Honey is a popular bee product widely consumed and therefore it has to be assured that it is free 

of contaminants and safe for the consumers. Many pollutants, including pesticides (Chauzat et al, 

2011) and heavy metals (Tuzen et al., 2007) coming from the environment, could be the source of 

contamination for bee matrices. In this study the method performances of two solid- liquid 

extraction techniques, Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) with clean up in-line and Quick, Easy, 

Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe (QuEChERS) extraction, were evaluated and compared for the 

analysis of pesticide residues in honey. Fiftythree pesticides, belonging to different chemical 

classes, were investigated in orange blossom honey from German local market using method based 

on Gas Chromatography coupled with Tandem Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS/MS. The linearity (R2 > 

0.985) in solvent and in matrix was achieved for most of the compounds with both extraction 

techniques, however showing a strong matrix effect. The criteria for a good repeatability (CV <20%) 

were satisfied for the 92 % of the compounds with QuEChERS extraction and for the 74% of the 

compounds with ASE extraction. The recovery (evaluated at three different concentration levels) 

was the same for the two techniques at the lowest concentration level, while was better for 

QuEChERS than ASE at the highest level. Furthermore, QuECheERS method allowed a significant 

reduction of the time needed for sample preparation than ASE extraction. 

 

References 

Chauzat, M.P., Martel, A.C., Cougoule, N., Porta, P., Lachaize, J., Zeggane, S., Aubert, M., Carpentier, P., Faucon, J.P; 2011. An 

assessment of honeybee colony matrices, Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: apidae) to monitor pesticides presence in continental 

France. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 30, 1-9 

Tuzen, M., Silici, S., Mendil, D., Soylak, M.; 2007. Trace elements levels in honeys from different regions of Turkey. Food Chem. 

103, 325-330.  

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