Discrimination of honey and syrup-based adulteration by mineral element chemometrics profiling

Abstract

Mineral elements are important constituents in honey, which play vital roles in determining the quality and authenticity. The present work aims to systematically estimate the mineral profile of honeys, syrups, and adulterated honeys by syrup directly with chemometrics. Twelve mineral elements with higher contents were determined by ICP-OES in 67 honeys from 6 botanical origins, 17 syrups from 3 types, and 61 adulterations. Statistical analysis revealed honey was significantly different and higher than pale syrup in mineral profile except for barium. Five mono-floral models were established based on chemometrics analysis using the sPLS-DA method, and their discrimination accuracy were over 93% Although mineral contents in honeys from different botanical and geographical origins were quite different, the multi-floral model's classify accuracy was 87.7% as well as in blind test. The results revealed that mineral element chemometrics profiling can be a stable and robust tool to differentiate adulterated honey from pure honey.

Keywords: Adulteration; Chemometrics; Honey; ICP-OES; Mineral elements; Syrup.