Honey is considered one of the foods most at risk of fraud, the most common fraud being adulteration, usually by addition of sugar. However other types of fraud exist, for example the false declaration of botanical or geographical origin, which especially relevant to Manuka honey.
Traceability and authenticity is therefore crucial for honey and other products from the hive to ensure a fair and sustainable beekeeping sector.
Eurofins Honey Adulteration Testing
Eurofins has developed a technique to test different kinds of honey which significantly improves the detection of adulteration.
Using high resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) profiling, our innovative high-throughput technique, provides a wide range of information that is both targeted (quantification of defined substances) and non-targeted (identifying deviations from reference spectra).
The analytical method, applied to honey, can:
- Detect the addition of exogenous sugars (from whatever source: cane, corn, beet, wheat, rice, etc.)
- Confirm the floral origin of honey declared on the product's packaging (single-flower honeys)
- Detect various irregularities such as excessive heat treatment (determination of 5-HMF) or fermentation
- Quantify the main sugars (glucose, fructose, sucrose).
Advantages of Eurofins Honey Authenticity Testing
- The innovative and unique fraud detection method means detection cannot be circumvented by the use of sugar syrups with no isotopic or molecular "markers"
- A global spectral fingerprint that can detect both fraud and possible alterations, thus avoiding additional analyses
- An efficient analysis that requires little sample preparation
- High reliability of the results as they are compared to global database of authentic honeys
- A method suitable for all kinds of honey (honey from flowers and honeydew, mono or poly-floral)
- A laboratory with a recognized experience of 25 years in food authenticity testing.
For a complete monitoring of honey products, Eurofins also offers tests to check the geographical origin of honey by Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis (SIRA).
For further information and testing, call us on 0845 604 6740 or make an enquiry.
