Uncertainties estimation for determination of 10 elements in Northeastern China black bee honey by ICP-MS

A method for the determination of 10 elements, including Na, Mg, P, K, Ca, Mn, Zn, Rb, Sr and Ba, in black bee honey sourced from Heilongjiang Province, Northeastern China is described. Tea (GBW10016) was chosen as the Certified Reference Material (CRM) for method validation. The “bottom-up” approach was used to estimate the sources of uncertainty, such as repeatability, weighing of the sample, recovery, sample volume, sample dilution, stock solution and calibration curve. The range of relative expanded uncertainties for all of the elements was 3.70 to 17.11% (coverage factor k = 2, providing a level of confidence of approximately p = 95%). The percentage contribution of each source to the relative combined uncertainties was calculated. The data indicated that the major contributions to the uncertainty budget originating from the calibration curve, repeatability and recovery. The validated method was successfully applied to determine 10 elements in Northeastern China black bee honey gathered from different sampling sites. This study was a part of the Northeastern China black bee honey traceability project. We believe that the method used in this work can be generally applied to determine other elements in other samples.