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

Abstract

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.