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Lebanon's agricultural sector, known for its diverse crop and livestock production, faces challenges in the international market due to the presence of chemical residues and contaminants in its food exports. Recent rejections of these exports have raised global concerns about food safety, increasingly seen as vital for public health and economic prosperity. This review focuses on examining scientific studies about the levels of various chemical residues including pesticides, and veterinary drugs and contaminants like mycotoxins, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heavy metals in Lebanese food products. Findings indicate that these residues and contaminants often exceed both the maximum residue limits (MRLs) and maximum limits (MLs) set by the Codex Alimentarius and the European Union. The review concludes with recommendations for reducing these contaminants and residues to enhance Lebanon's food safety and quality, aligning with international standards, and mitigating the risk of export rejections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the residual toxicity of waters after photocatalysis treatments. The initial waters contain 7 mg L−1 of sulfaquinoxaline (SQX) which is a sulfonamide antibiotic generally recorded inside the water. The contaminated waters are treated by photocatalytic degradation process with bare titania and titania covered with polyaniline (PANI) conducting polymer. The degradation of SQX is conducted at different pH in order to find the optimal condition to obtain SQX concentration relatively equal to zero in the shortest amount of time. This occurs for PANI/TiO2 at pH 12 and TiO2 at pH 4. Toxicity assays (concentration of biomass, pigmentation tests, and cells counting) are undertaken on the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris in order to evaluate the residual toxicity of the 2 treated waters. The toxicity results highlight that the water treated by PANI/TiO2 at pH 12 is the less toxic towards the algae cells. The water processed by bare titania at acidic pH displays unneglectable toxicity towards the algae cells which are larger than the toxicity of the original SQX solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new, simple and fast method was developed for the determination of multi-class antibiotic residues in honey (sulfonamides, tetracyclines, macrolides, lincosamides and aminoglycosides). Separation and determination were carried out by LC-MS/MS. During sample preparation, various parameters affecting extraction efficiency were examined, including the type of solvent, pH, efficiencies of cleavage of N-glycosidic linkages by hydrochloric acid, ultrasonic extraction and its duration compared with shaking, along with dispersive SPE clean-up. Experiments with fortified samples demonstrated that 10 min of ultrasonic treatment with acidified methanol (HCl 2 M) followed by dispersive SPE clean-up with 50 mg PSA gave an effective sample preparation method for several classes of antibiotics in honey. Anhydroerythromycin A, erythromycin A enol ether and desmycosin were used as markers for the presence of erythromycin A and tylosin A in honey samples. The method was validated according to European Commission Decision (EC) No. 2002/657. The recoveries of analytes ranged from 85% to 111%. Repeatability and intra-laboratory reproducibility were < 20.6% and 26.8%, respectively. Decision limit (CCα) and detection capability (CCβ) ranged from 6 to 9 µg kg–1 and from 7 to 13 µg kg–1, respectively, except for streptomycin and neomycin, which showed slightly higher CCα at 25 µg kg–1 and CCβ at 34 µg kg–1. Finally, the method was applied to the honey test material 02270 through a FAPAS proficiency test (PT) for the determination of tetracyclines. PT results were obtained within a z-score range of ±2, proving that the validated method is suitable for routine analysis to ensure the quality of honey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the residual toxicity of waters after photocatalysis treatments . The initial waters contain 7 mg L -1 of sulfaquinoxaline (SQX) which is a sulfonamide antibiotic generally recorded inside the water. The contaminated waters are treated by photocatalytic degradation process with bare titania and titania covered with polyaniline (PANI) conducting polymer. The degradation of SQX is conducted at different pH in order to find the optimal condition to obtain SQX concentration relatively equal to zero in the shortest amount of time. This occurs for PANI/TiO 2 at pH 12 and TiO 2 at pH 4. Toxicity assays (concentration of biomass, pigmentation tests, and cells counting) are undertaken on the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris in order to evaluate the residual toxicity of the 2 treated waters. The toxicity results highlight that the water treated by PANI/TiO 2 at pH 12 is the less toxic towards the algae cells. The water processed by bare titania at acidic pH displays unneglectable toxicity towards the algae cells which are larger than the toxicity of the original SQX solution.