Novel inspection of sugar residue and origin in honey based on the 13C/12C isotopic ratio and protein content

Publication date: Available online 1 October 2018Source: Journal of Food and Drug AnalysisAuthor(s): Chun-Ting Chen, Bor-Yann Chen, Yu-Shin Nai, Yuan-Mou Chang, Kuan-Hua Chen, Yue-Wen ChenAbstractRegarding the honey industry, market prices are strongly affected by the origin and composition of products. In particular, the adulteration of honey can be divided into cases of honey being mixed with artificial syrup, the different origin of the adulteration and the presence of cane sugar residue. Unfortunately, recent studies mentioned that most honey is mixed with artificial syrups. Thus, determining such unnaturally present sugar is necessary to maintain the trust of the consuming populations. To investigate the possibility of syrup augmentation, this study first clarifies two points of great importance. First, long-term feeding of cane sugar to honey bee colonies in winter and the continuous harvest of honey were investigated to evaluate the C4 sugar ratio in spring through inspection of the 13C/12C isotopic ratio. As the results indicated, C4 sugar was detected as “sugar residue” in honey samples when the honey bee colonies were fed with cane sugar in winter and when the honey was collected in the first and second harvests in March. As indicated from the samples of 89 Taiwanese longan honeys, 54 Thai longan honeys, and 20 Taiwanese non-longan honeys for analysis, such “sugar residues” were in 40% (8/20) of the Taiwanese non-longan honeys, 15% (3/20) of 2017 Taiwanese l...
Source: Journal of Food and Drug Analysis - Category: Food Science Source Type: research