Detection of adulteration in honey samples added various sugar syrups with 13C/12C isotope ratio analysis method

Abstract

Honey can be adulterated in various ways. One of the adulteration methods is the addition of different sugar syrups during or after honey production. Starch-based sugar syrups, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), glucose syrup (GS) and saccharose syrups (SS), which are produced from beet or canes, can be used for adulterating honey. In this study, adulterated honey samples were prepared with the addition of HFCS, GS and SS (beet sugar) at a ratio of 0%, 10%, 20%, 40% and 50% by weight. 13C/12C analysis was conducted on these adulterated honey samples using an isotope ratio mass spectrometer in combination with an elemental analyser (EA–IRMS). As a result, adulteration using C4 sugar syrups (HFCS and GS) could be detected to a certain extent while adulteration of honey using C3 sugar syrups (beet sugar) could not be detected. Adulteration by using SS (beet sugar) still has a serious detection problem, especially in countries in which beet is used in manufacturing sugar. For this reason, practice and analysis methods are needed to meet this deficit and to detect the adulterations precisely in the studies that will be conducted.