Practical procedure for discriminating monofloral honey with a broad pollen profile variability using an electronic tongue

Abstract

Colour and floral origin are key parameters that may influence the honey market. Monofloral light honey are more demanded by consumers, mainly due to their flavour, being more valuable for producers due to their higher price when compared to darker honey. The latter usually have a high anti-oxidant content that increases their healthy potential. This work showed that it is possible to correctly classify monofloral honey with a high variability in floral origin with a potentiometric electronic tongue after making a preliminary selection of honey according their colours: white, amber and dark honey. The results showed that the device had a very satisfactory sensitivity towards floral origin (Castanea sp., Echium sp., Erica sp., Lavandula sp., Prunus sp. and Rubus sp.), allowing a leave-one-out cross validation correct classification of 100%. Therefore, the E-tongue shows potential to be used at analytical laboratory level for honey samples classification according to market and quality parameters, as a practical tool for ensuring monofloral honey authenticity.

Keywords: Electronic tongue; Honey colour; Linear discriminant analysis; Monofloral honey; Simulated annealing algorithm.