Exploring the role of NIR spectroscopy in quantifying and verifying honey authenticity: A review.

Honey, recognized for its diverse flavors and nutritional benefits, confronts challenges in maintaining authenticity and quality due to factors like adulteration and mislabelling. This review undertakes a comprehensive exploration of the utility of Near-Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy as a non-destructive analytical method for concurrently evaluating both honey quantity and authenticity. The primary purpose of this investigation is to delve into the various applications of NIR spectroscopy in honey analysis, with a specific focus on its capability to identify and quantify significant quality parameters such as sugar content, moisture levels, 5-HMF, and proline content. Results from the study underscore the effectiveness of NIR spectroscopy, especially when integrated with advanced chemometrics models. This combination not only facilitates quantification of diverse quality parameters but also enhances the classification of honey based on geographical and botanical origin. The technology emerges as a potent tool for detecting adulteration, addressing critical challenges in preserving the authenticity and quality of honey products. The impact of this critical analysis extends to shedding light on the current state, challenges, and future prospects of applying NIR spectroscopy in the honey industry. This analysis outlines the current challenges and future prospects of NIR spectroscopy in the honey industry. Emphasizing its potential to improve consumer confidence and food safety, the research has broader implications for authenticity and quality assurance in honey. Integrating NIR spectroscopy into industry practices could establish stronger quality control measures, benefiting both producers and consumers globally.

Detection of barley malt syrup as an adulterant in honey by 1H NMR profile.

Currently, Barley Malt Syrup (BMS) is one of the forms of growing adulteration in honey. However, there have been no reports regarding its identification by NMR. In this aspect, we proposed a 1H NMR profiling method to discriminate between authentic and honey adulterated with BMS. The authenticated honey samples were artificially adulterated with varying percentages of BMS. It was found that a marker peak primarily falling around the 5.40 ppm region exhibited discrimination between pure and adulterated samples. Furthermore, NMR data of the samples were analyzed using statistical models. The findings demonstrate that NMR sugar profiles region, when combined with PCA analysis, can effectively detect varying degrees of adulteration. Despite qualitative nature of the outcomes, spiking studies have revealed that approach can reliably identify sugar addition at levels as low as 5-10%. Overall, NMR-based approach proves to be effective in detecting BMS as an adulterant in honey.

Enabling honey quality and authenticity with NMR and LC-IRMS based platform.

Honey has been known for economically motivated adulteration around the world, because of its high demand and short supply. As consequence increasing honey production using the deliberate addition of sugar syrups while claiming a fictitious origin and diversifying it to increase its value. Generally, honey testing is supervised by a set of guidelines and quality parameters to ensure its quality and authenticity. As per the many regulatory bodies, current honey scams have been challenging to identify with conventional methods, so quality control labs require sophisticated technology. With these paradigm shifts, the aim of the present review is focused on the authenticity of honey through two important cutting-edge methods viz LC-IRMS and NMR. The LC-IRMS aids in the detection of added C3 and C4 sugars. Whereas NMR has provided a potent solution by allowing the classification of botanical varieties and geographical origin along with the quantification of a set of quality parameters in a single experiment.