A Comprehensive Review on the Main Honey Authentication Issues: Production and Origin

Honey is a highly consumed natural product, not only for its taste and nutritional value, but also for its health benefits. Owing to characteristics that are essentially or exclusively related to the specific region or particular local environment and flora, honey can be classified as a premium prod...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Comprehensive reviews in food science and food safety 2017-09, Vol.16 (5), p.1072-1100
Main Authors: Soares, Sónia, Amaral, Joana S., Oliveira, Maria Beatriz P.P., Mafra, Isabel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
analysis
authenticity
botanical and geographical origins
Flavor
Geographical distribution
Honey
production
Sugar
Syrups
Taste
Water content
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Summary:Honey is a highly consumed natural product, not only for its taste and nutritional value, but also for its health benefits. Owing to characteristics that are essentially or exclusively related to the specific region or particular local environment and flora, honey can be classified as a premium product generally perceived as a high‐quality and valued product because of its desirable flavor and taste. Consequently, honey has been a target of adulteration through inappropriate/fraudulent production practices and mislabeling origin. Globally, authentication of honey covers 2 main aspects: the production, with main issues related to sugar syrup addition, filtration, thermal treatment, and water content; and the labeled origin (geographical and/or botanical) and “organic” provenance. This review addresses all those issues, focusing on the approaches to detect the different types of honey adulteration. Due to the complex nature of honey and to the different types of adulteration, its authentication has been challenging and prompted the development of several advanced analytical approaches. Therefore, an updated, critical, and extensive overview on the current and advanced analytical methods targeting markers of adulteration/authenticity, including nontarget fingerprint approaches will be provided. The most recent advances on molecular, chromatographic, and spectroscopic methodologies will be described, emphasizing their pros and cons for the identification of botanical and geographical origins.
ISSN:1541-4337
1541-4337
DOI:10.1111/1541-4337.12278