Physicochemical analysis and adulteration detection in Malaysia stingless bee honey using a handheld near‐infrared spectrometer

Abstract

Stingless bee honey is a type of popular honey in Malaysia. In this study, a total of 30 stingless bee honey samples were exclusively collected from the beekeepers, honeybee suppliers, and honeybee farms in Malaysia. The quality of stingless bee honey is evaluated against the standard, while the near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy technique is implemented for detecting adulterated honey. One out of thirty (30) honey samples does not fulfill the requirements of moisture content and hydroxymethylfurfural content, according to Standard of Malaysia, whereas only five (5) honey samples fulfill the requirement of the pH value. Furthermore, the NIR spectra data interpretation using principal component analysis (PCA) combined with logistic regression shows that the accuracy of above 98% is obtained for both train dataset and test dataset. This high accuracy of honey adulteration identification using the NIR spectrometer shows its promising immediate application for rapid nondestructive fraud detection in honey. Novelty impact statement There are two main contributions from this research: firstly, the result of physicochemical analysis that one out of thirty (30) kelulut honey samples does not fulfill the requirements of moisture content and hydroxymethylfurfural content, according to Standard of Malaysia, whereas only five (5) honey samples fulfill the requirement of the pH value; secondly, the implementation of the NIR scanning using a handheld device, which is considerably new and promising for in situ application in the future of honey authentication particularly in Malaysia.