Honey has always been widely used by communities around the world since ancient times. Honey can be traced back to the nectar present in plant blossoms from where it is collected by the bees. This sweet delicacy has a lot more to offer than its taste and has a long history of medicinal use. For centuries, honey has proven to be an effective antibacterial and antifungal commodity. It is also packed with phytonutrients which give honey its unique antioxidant properties. It has been proved to be effective in combating the diseases of the upper respiratory tract.
With such diverse uses, there is no doubt that honey is one of the highly marketed commodities around the world. With greater demand, comes greater competition, and with that comes higher risks associated with quality and adulteration. The quality of honey mainly depends on the authenticity of the honey and the water content. Authenticity has dual meanings, one in terms of honey production and the other is in terms of the description of its geographical and botanical origin. The water content can also significantly affect the shelf life as well as the purity of honey. Adulteration of honey with sugar syrups was seen as the most widely observed malpractice followed by mis-description of geographical and/or botanical origin of honey.
Since honey is so high in demand, there have been many attempts to mix sugars like glucose, dextrose, molasses, sugar syrup, invert sugar, corn syrup, or any other similar product to reduce the price while maintaining the sweet taste. To check for adulteration, initially NMR spectroscopy was used, however adulterants containing C3 sugar and foreign oligosaccharides were then used, which are not detected by NMR.
In order to ensure the reliability of honey, FARE Labs has created one of the most reliable and specialized setup of LC-IRMS for detecting honey adulteration of any form, thus ensuring purity of your product. We have worked with companies such as ITC, Saffola, Dabur, etc. for testing the purity of their honey.
We perform complete honey testing as specified by the standards of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Other than adulteration, other common parameters tested in honey are mentioned below.