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Application of UV–Vis spectroscopy for the detection of adulteration in Mediterranean honeys

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Abstract

The present study aimed to identify adulteration of honey with sugar syrups and colorants using UV–Vis spectroscopy, combined with multivariate statistical analysis. A total of 209 honeys were used, including 151 commercial honey samples (thyme, pine, and polyfloral honeys) collected from different countries of Mediterranean (Greece, Malta, Spain, Tunisia, and Turkey) and 58 adulterated Greek thyme honey samples by adding syrups and colorants. Honey adulteration was identified using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) along with Random Forest (RF), Partial Least Squares – Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA), and Data Driven-Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogies (DD-SIMCA) using the spectral range of 220–550 nm. Comparatively, DD-SIMCA models produced better results in terms of accuracy and sensitivity in most cases evaluated. The results support the good predictive capability of UV–Vis spectroscopy combined with chemometrics for the determination of honey adulteration, and thus, it could be utilized as a rapid, inexpensive, and simple method.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is part of the PRIMA programme, supported by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under grant agreement No 1932, project MEDIFIT (Call 2019 Section "Introduction" Agrofood IA).

Funding

This study was supported by Horizon Europe, No 1932.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Dafni Dimakopoulou-Papazoglou, Konstantinos Koutsoumanis & Eugenios Katsanidis

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, 50100, Kozani, Greece

    Nikolaos Ploskas

  3. Department of Food Science and Technology, Campus of Rabanales, University of Córdoba, Charles Darwin Building Annex, 14014, Córdoba, Spain

    Salud Serrano

  4. Department of Food Sciences and Nutrition, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta, Msida, 2080, Malta

    Carolina Santos Silva & Vasilis Valdramidis

  5. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Tekniikantie 1, 02150, Espoo, Finland

    Carolina Santos Silva

  6. Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15771, Athens, Greece

    Vasilis Valdramidis

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  1. Dafni Dimakopoulou-Papazoglou
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  2. Nikolaos Ploskas
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  4. Carolina Santos Silva
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Contributions

Investigation: DDP; Formal analysis: DDP, NP, EK; Methodology: DDP, CSS, SS, EK; Resources: DDP, CSS, SS, EK, KK, VV; Writing—original draft preparation: DDP; Writing—review and editing: EK, NP, KK, SS, CSS, VV; Funding acquisition: KK; Project administration: EK, KK, VV; Supervision: EK.

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Correspondence to Dafni Dimakopoulou-Papazoglou.

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Dimakopoulou-Papazoglou, D., Ploskas, N., Serrano, S. et al. Application of UV–Vis spectroscopy for the detection of adulteration in Mediterranean honeys. Eur Food Res Technol 249, 3043–3053 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-023-04347-1

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