Adulteration of beeswax: A first nationwide survey from Belgium

Beeswax is intended for use in the beekeeping sector but also in the agro-food, pharmaceutical or cosmetics sectors. The adulteration of beeswax is an emerging issue that was reported lately at several occasions in the scientific literature. This issue tends to become more frequent and global, but i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2021-09, Vol.16 (9), p.e0252806
Main Authors: El Agrebi, Noëmie, Svecnjak, Lidija, Horvatinec, Jelena, Renault, Véronique, Rortais, Agnes, Cravedi, Jean-Pierre, Saegerman, Claude
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acids
Agriculture
Animals
Apiculture
Beekeeping
Bees
Beeswax
Biology and Life Sciences
Consumption
Cosmetics
Epidemiology
Evaluation
Fisheries
Food chains
Food safety
Fourier transforms
Fraud
Health aspects
Honey
Infrared analysis
Infrared spectroscopy
Life Sciences
Management
Medicine and Health Sciences
Médecine vétérinaire & santé animale
Paraffin
Paraffins
People and places
Physical Sciences
Plant reproduction
Polls & surveys
Reference materials
Reflectance
Research and Analysis Methods
Risk assessment
Sciences du vivant
Spectrum analysis
Stearic acid
Stearin
Veterinary medicine & animal health
Wildlife management
Zoology
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Summary:Beeswax is intended for use in the beekeeping sector but also in the agro-food, pharmaceutical or cosmetics sectors. The adulteration of beeswax is an emerging issue that was reported lately at several occasions in the scientific literature. This issue tends to become more frequent and global, but its exact extent is not accurately defined. The present study aims to assess the current situation in Belgium through a nationwide survey. Randomized beeswax samples originating from Belgian beekeepers (N = 98) and commercial suppliers (N = 9) were analysed with a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) coupled with Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) accessory (FTIR-ATR spectroscopy) for adulteration. The survey revealed a frequency of 9.2% and 33.3% of adulteration in beekeepers beeswax samples (9 samples out of 98: 2 with paraffin and 7 with stearin/stearic acid) and commercial beeswax samples (3 samples out of 9: all adulterated with stearin/stearic acid), respectively. The analysed samples were adulterated with various percentages of paraffin (12 to 78.8%) and stearin/stearic acid (1.2 to 20.8%). This survey indicates that in the beekeepers samples, beeswax adulteration was more frequent in comb foundation and crude beeswax than in comb wax. With the example of this nationwide survey conducted in Belgium, this study shows the emergence of the issue and the urgent need for action to safeguard the health of both honey bees health and humans, in particular with the setting of a proper regulation legal framework and a specific routine analytical testing of commercial beeswax to ensure beeswax quality.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0252806