Abstract
In this study, the Fourier transform mid-infrared (FT-MIR) spectroscopy technique combined with chemometrics methods was used to monitor adulteration of honey with sugar syrup. Spectral data were recorded from a wavenumber region of 4000–600 cm−1, with a spectral resolution of 4 cm−1. Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were used for qualitative analysis to discriminate between adulterated and nonadulterated honey. For quantitative analysis, we used partial least-squares regression (PLS-R) and the support vector machine (SVM) to develop optimal calibration models. The use of PCA shows that the first two principal components account for 96% of the total variability. PCA and HCA allow classifying the dataset into two groups: adulterated and unadulterated honey. The use of the PLS-R and SVM-R calibration models for the quantification of adulteration shows high-performance capabilities represented by a high value of correlation coefficients R2 greater than 98% and 95% with lower values of root mean square error (RMSE) less than 1.12 and 1.85 using PLS-R and SVM-R, respectively. Our results indicate that FT-MIR spectroscopy combined with chemometrics techniques can be used successfully as a simple, rapid, and nondestructive method for the quantification and discrimination of adulterated honey.
Highlights
Adulteration of food for economic purposes is becoming a major problem in many countries due to the global trade growth
Honey is considered as a purely natural food that is never modified by additives, colorants, conservatives, or other substances [1]. e medicinal benefits and agreeable sweet taste stemming mainly from the natural composition of honey can explain the high cost of this product, which makes it susceptible to adulteration after olive oil [6] and milk [7]. e most common method of honey adulteration involves the addition of sugar syrup due to its similar composition to honey and its low price [8]. e increasing demand for honey in the market has made it absolutely necessary to establish reliable methods of analysis in order to ensure the authenticity of honey and to protect the consumer against any form of falsification
A lot of research has been devoted to address this authentication issue, in order to develop robust and efficient analytical methods suitable to provide information on the quality and the safety of honey. Such analytical methods can be divided into two general classes, those based on the analysis of chemical compounds of honey, such as high-performance liquid chromatography [10], gas chromatography [11], and C-isotope approach, and based on spectroscopic techniques, such as nuclear magnetic resonance [12], visible near-infrared [13], near-infrared (NIR) [14], and fluorescence [15]
Summary
Omar Elhamdaoui ,1 Aimen El Orche ,2 Amine Cheikh, Brahim Mojemmi, Rachid Nejjari, and Mustapha Bouatia 1. The Fourier transform mid-infrared (FT-MIR) spectroscopy technique combined with chemometrics methods was used to monitor adulteration of honey with sugar syrup. Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were used for qualitative analysis to discriminate between adulterated and nonadulterated honey. E use of PCA shows that the first two principal components account for 96% of the total variability. E use of the PLS-R and SVM-R calibration models for the quantification of adulteration shows high-performance capabilities represented by a high value of correlation coefficients R2 greater than 98% and 95% with lower values of root mean square error (RMSE) less than 1.12 and 1.85 using PLS-R and SVM-R, respectively. Our results indicate that FT-MIR spectroscopy combined with chemometrics techniques can be used successfully as a simple, rapid, and nondestructive method for the quantification and discrimination of adulterated honey
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