HONEY BEE & POLLINATION

Techniques for the detection of adulterated honey

  • 16 pages

  • Published: 16 May 2002

  • Author(s): Korth, Wolfgang, Ralston, Jean

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The adulteration of pure honey with synthetic honey has become much more prevalent in recent years, and more difficult to identify, particularly since the availability of cheap high fructose corn syrup.

While traditional techniques for the detection of adulterated honey have been adequate in maintaining the integrity of the honey market for a long time, new analytical techniques based on isotope ratioing mass spectrometry needed to be developed for the detection of corn or cane sugar adulteration of honey.

This report summarises the work undertaken by the National Residue Survey (NRS) to establish whether or not the isotope ratioing technique could be used to detect the adulteration of pure Australian honeys with synthetic honey (based on C4 plant sugars) and if so, at what level.