Evaluation of physics and microbiological contamination of honey from the northeast of the State of Pará, Brazil

Résumé

The Mercosur Technical Regulation for honey determines microbiological parameters for total coliforms and fungi and/ yeasts, and absence of physical contaminants, of any nature. The purpose of this study was to verify the biological and physical contamin Apis mellifera ligustica and Melipona fasciculata, commercialized in the northeastern region of the State of Pará, Brazil. The fourteen samples from informal trade of the municipalities of Bragança, Capanema, Nova Timboteua, São João de Pirabas, Salinas and Tracauateua were analyzed for the Most Probable Number of coliforms at 35ºC, Fungus and Yeast counts, besides the detection of dirt by Macro and Microscopy techniques. The results obtained from the microbiological analyzes were compared to the standard required by MERCOSUR, for coliforms. 57.14% of the samples were non-standard and ranged from <3.0 NMP/g to 20 NMP/g. The fungi and/ yeast counts ranged from 1x10¹ CFU/g to 8.6x10² CFU/g, with a total of 21.42% of the samples being in disagreement with the legislation. From the macroscopic analysis, it was observed that, although 50% of the samples did not present any apparent dirt, microscopically it was possible to observe dirt in 100% of the samples of honey analyzed, which is out of the standard required by the Brazilian legislation. This shows the low sanitary quality of honey commercialized in this region of the state of Pará.