*2.1. Sample Collection*

A total of 1330 honey samples were collected from Dubai ports in the UAE between 2017 and 2021. They were classified according to honey type: honey (1180), blended honey (58), honeycomb (47), acacia honey (25), and forest honey (20). Blended honey included honey mixed with spices, pollen, verbena, lemon, mint, chili, ginger, pepper, cinnamon, or hibiscus. Comb honey is produced from traditional hives [29] and it contains honeycomb, which is the wax structure in which honey bees store honey and pollen in these hives. Acacia honey is a monofloral honey produced by *Apis mellifera*, a cultured bee that harvests the extra-floral nectar from the forest mangrove or mangium tree (*Acacia mangium*) [30]. Forest honey is produced by bees from oak, holm oak, and cork oak forests.

The sampling of honey was conducted by trained, authorized food inspectors from 5 sites located in the Dubai ports, municipality of Dubai. The collected samples were sent to the food analysis laboratory where they were stirred to yield uniformity within each sample, and then analyzed.
