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Quantitative analysis of physical and chemical measurands in honey by mid-infrared spectrometry

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Abstract

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to determine 20 different measurands in honey. The reference values for 144 honey samples of different botanical origin were determined by classical physical and chemical methods. Partial least squares regression was used to develop the calibration models for the measurands studied. They were validated using independent samples and proved satisfying accuracies for the determination of water (R 2=0.99), glucose (0.94), fructose (0.84), sucrose (0.91), melezitose (0.98) and monosaccharide content (0.82) as well as fructose/glucose ratio (0.98), glucose/water ratio (0.94), electrical conductivity (0.98), pH-value (0.87) and free acidity (0.96). The prediction accuracy for hydroxymethylfurfural, proline and the minor sugars maltose, turanose, erlose, trehalose, isomaltose and kojibiose was rather poor. The results demonstrate that mid-infrared spectrometry is a valuable, rapid and non-destructive tool for the quantitative analysis of the most important measurands in honey.

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Acknowledgements

The financial support of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, Narimpex AG, and the Swiss Beekeeper's Association is gratefully acknowledged. M. T. Iglesias is recipient of a doctoral grant from the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (Spain).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Bee Research Centre/Agroscope Liebefeld-Posieux, Schwarzenburgstr.161, CH-3003, Berne, Switzerland

    Kaspar Ruoff, Werner Luginbühl, Jacques-Olivier Bosset & Stefan Bogdanov

  2. Instituto Madrileño de Investigación Agraria y Alimentaria (IMIA), Finca el Encín. Apdo 127, 28800, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain

    María Teresa Iglesias

  3. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Institute of Food Science and Nutrition, ETH-Zentrum, Schmelzbergstrasse 9, CH-8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Kaspar Ruoff & Renato Amadò

Authors
  1. Kaspar Ruoff
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  2. María Teresa Iglesias
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  3. Werner Luginbühl
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  4. Jacques-Olivier Bosset
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  5. Stefan Bogdanov
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  6. Renato Amadò
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Correspondence to Kaspar Ruoff.

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Ruoff, K., Iglesias, M.T., Luginbühl, W. et al. Quantitative analysis of physical and chemical measurands in honey by mid-infrared spectrometry. Eur Food Res Technol 223, 22–29 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-005-0085-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-005-0085-z

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