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Review
. 2020 Jul 31;9(8):1028.
doi: 10.3390/foods9081028.

Modern Methods for Assessing the Quality of Bee Honey and Botanical Origin Identification

Anna Puścion-Jakubik  1 , Maria Halina Borawska  1 , Katarzyna Socha  1
Affiliations
Review

Modern Methods for Assessing the Quality of Bee Honey and Botanical Origin Identification

Anna Puścion-Jakubik et al. Foods. .

Abstract

This paper is a summary of the latest literature on methods for assessing quality of natural bee honey. The publication briefly characterizes methods recommended by the International Honey Commission, published in 2009, as well as newer methods published in the last 10 years. Modern methods of assessing honey quality focus mainly on analyzing markers of individual varieties and classifying them into varieties, using, among others, near infrared spectroscopy techniques (NIR), potentiometric tongue, electronic nose, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), zymography, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), DNA metabarcoding, and chemometric techniques including partial least squares (PLS), principal component analysis (PCA) and artificial neural networks (ANN). At the same time, effective techniques for analyzing adulteration, sugar, and water content, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), polyphenol content, and diastase activity are being sought. Modern techniques enable the results of honey quality testing to be obtained in a shorter time, using the principles of green chemistry, allowing, at the same time, for high precision and accuracy of determinations. These methods are constantly modified, so that the honey that is on sale is a product of high quality. Prospects for devising methods of honey quality assessment include the development of a fast and accurate alternative to the melissopalynological method as well as quick tests to detect adulteration.

Keywords: adulteration; bee honey; quality assessment; variety.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of publications in the PubMed database with the word “honey” in the title.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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