Table 2.

Overview of toxicity studies with worker bees and larvae considered for derivation of BMCs/BMDs for HMF

References	Bees per group	Number of feeding days	sugar/water ratio of bee feed	Number of dead bees per group(a)		Concentration in mg HMF/kg feed	Dose in μg HMF/bee per day	Percentage of mortality/survival with SD/SE as reported in the studies		Derivation of dose
Jachimowicz and El Sherbiny (1975)(b),(c)	500 workers (5 replicates with 100 bees)	20	50/50	Year 1973	Year 1974			Year 1973	Year 1974	Assuming an uptake of 27.0 mg bee feed/bee per day based on default uptake of 13.5 mg sugar/bee per day(a),(g)
				60	65	0	0	12.0	13.0
				70	80	30	0.81	14.0	16.0
				287	300	150*	4.05*	57.4*	60.0*
				496	492	750*	20.25*	99.2*	98.4*
Krainer et al. (2016)(d)	144 workers (3 replicates with 48 bees)	7/22	50/50	7 days	22 days			7 days	22 days	Assuming an uptake of 27.0 mg bee feed/bee per day based on default uptake of 13.5 mg sugar/bee per day(a),(g)
				1	10	0	0	0.7 ± 0.47	6.7 ± 1.44
				1	97	2,000	54.00	0.7 ± 0.47	67.0 ± 2.71*
				7	144	4,000	108.00	3.0 ± 0.985*	100*
				7	144	8,000	216.00	5.0 ± 1.26*	100*
	336/576 larvae (7 replicates with 48 bees, for test groups and for control 12 replicates with 48 bees)	6 (observation at day 7 or 22)	33/77 (Considering average sugar contents of Royal Jelly and home‐ made syrup	30	94	0	0	9.0 ± 1.19	28.1 ± 0.019	Assuming an uptake of 28.3 mg bee feed/larvae per day based on uptake of 28.3 μL bee feed/larvae per day(b),(f)
				23	89	5	0.14	6.9 ± 1.5	26.4 ± 2.60
				34	102	50	1.41	10.1 ± 1.77	30.2 ± 0.027
				23	108	750	21.22	6.8 ± 1.38	32.1 ± 0.026
				176*	294*	5,000*	141.50*	52.4 ± 2.72*	87.5 ± 0.018*
				336*	336*	7,500*	212.25*	100*	‐‐
				336*	336*	10,000*	283.00*	100*	‐‐
Gregorc et al. (2020)(e)	350 workers (5 replicates with 70 bees)	5	90/10	1		0	0	99.7 ± 0.3		Assuming an uptake of 15.0 mg bee feed/bee per day based on a default uptake of 13.5 mg sugar/bee per day(a),(g)
				3		100	1.50	99.2 ± 0.5
				1		500	7.50	99.6 ± 0.5
				2		1,000	15.00	99.4 ± 0.6
				2		1,500	22.50	99.5 ± 0.4
	350 workers (5 replicates with 70 bees)	10	90/10	4		0	0	98.8 ± 0.2
				9		100	1.50	97.5 ± 0.7
				6		500	7.50	98.3 ± 0.4
				9		1,000	15.00	97.5 ± 0.2
				8		1,500	22.50	97.8 ± 1.2
	350 workers (5 replicates with 70 bees)	15	90/10	8		0	0	97.6 ± 0.4
				16		100	1.50	95.5 ± 0.9
				11		500	7.50	96.9 ± 1.0
				14		1,000	15.00	96.1 ± 1.1
				28		1,500	22.50	91.9 ± 2.3
	350 workers (5 replicates with 70 bees)	20	90/10	29		0	0	91.7 ± 0.4
				40		100	1.50	88.6 ± 6.0
				43		500	7.50	87.7 ± 7.4
				43		1,000	15.00	87.7 ± 6.2
				87		1,500	22.50*	75.0 ± 11.6*

HMF: Hydroxymethylfurfural; SD: standard deviation.

*: Considered as significantly different from control by the study authors.

^aPercentage of mortality or survival have been converted to dead bees per group.

^bSE/SD of mortality rates were not reported.

^cValues are mortality rates.

^dValues are mortality rates.

^eValues are survival rates.

^fValue as reported in Krainer et al. (2016).

^gAverage consumption value derived from Tosi et al. (2021).