Mel Seguro: Rastreabilidade e Inovação na Garantia da Qualidade Apícola

HoneyScreen brings together a group of qualified researchers with different expertise, connected with professional and aspiring beekeepers. The project intends to assess the occurrence of persistent contaminations in honey in different ecosystems. Besides, a rapid tool – MIP kits (Molecular Imprinted Polymers) will be developed and delivered to access prevalent contaminants, including natural toxins. Training of beekeepers and future young professionals will be provided to use those kits in apiaries. A workflow combining main tasks and corresponding milestones was designed and is present as an attached file (Workflow_HoneyScreen). Samples of honey will be collected from hives in different locations to assess contaminants. For this task, the specific expertise in honeybee ecotoxicology of CFE from UC will be essential to provide random samples from geographically distinct locations in Portugal and obtain information on the “big picture” of contaminants. INIAV, as National Reference Laboratory for Food Safety, has experiense in analyzing food samples for contaminants potentially threatening public health. The partnership with FFUC, as a leader in interdisciplinary higher education with a team specialized in Food safety, gives an added value to the project. Equally, REQUIMTE/LAQV, as a scientific participant entity, is also characterized by its expertise in monitoring and analysis of biological and chemical hazards of food and environmental origin, in plant biology, fungi toxicology and risk assessment areas. In parallel, a systematic review will be performed with subsequent statistical analysis to fulfill a database of the most reported natural and anthropogenic contaminants in honey. The combined scientific knowledge of INIAV and FFUC, as well as the statistical experience of REQUIMTE/LAQV and CFE will be key factors to successfully achieve this output. The ultimate goal will be achieved by researchers with experience in chemical synthesis and currently developing studies on the preparation of MIPs, belonging to CERENA, IST. They will work on the synthesis of a specific biological system for contaminants recognition in the final rapid screening kits. The long background of CERENA-IST in the production of Polyurethane Foams (PU) foams, which has previously developed polymers with high area-to-volume ratio that can capture enantiomers of turpentine (alfa and beta-pinene, limonene, both L and D form), gives the project a positive perspective concerning the development of the final expected product (MIP Kit). Afterwards, training sessions, good practice manuals and dissemination through students in an agricultural professional school will be guaranteed by close collaboration with key stakeholders in apiculture. All parties will gather the knowledge acquired in each task to comprise the final main innovation output - Pilot project for honey quality and safety assessment. To complete this final pilot project, the collaboration of international entities, from the countries in Europe with high honey production will give HoneySafe the international dimension and possibility of successful spread of the obtained kit tests (annex: Support Letters HoneyScreen). Additionally, it is expected to proceed to the registration of a patent for the developed tool. All the activities, outputs, and results comprise an innovative approach to a major current hot topic: food safety, as a response to specific issues in the honey value chain.