Researchers from Cranfield University, UK, have developed two new ways to identify fake honey with added sugar, according to studies published in Food Control and Foods. The authors believe this could pave the way for a faster and more accurate way to discover fake products.
Honey is a popular product, with almost £90 million worth of honey imported to the UK in 2023. This makes it vulnerable to fraud, usually by adding sugary syrups to dilute pure honey. A report from the European Commission in 2023 found that 46% of 147 honey samples tested had been adulterated with cheap plant syrups.
The problem is that it is challenging to detect altered products. Current authentication methods are costly and time-consuming. To overcome this issue, researchers from the University of Cranfield have developed two new tests to authenticate honey quickly and without opening the jar.
The team used samples of honey spiked with rice and sugar beet syrups. These samples were tested using the non-invasive Spatial Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) method, commonly used in pharmaceutical and security diagnostics. The SORS test rapidly identified the ‘fingerprint’ of each ingredient in the product, including the added syrups. The results were then run through an AI algorithm to identify sugar syrups from various plant sources. Another advantage is that the method uses portable equipment and is easy to implement, making it an ideal screening tool for testing honey along the supply chain.
“Honey is expensive and in demand – and can be targeted by fraudsters, which leaves genuine suppliers out of pocket and undermines consumers’ trust. This method is an effective, quick tool to identify suspicious samples of honey, helping the industry to protect consumers and verify supply chains, said Dr Maria Anastasiadi, lecturer in Bioinformatics at Cranfield University.
The authors were also involved in a second study using DNA barcoding. Samples were collected directly from bee farmers around the UK and purchased from supermarkets and online retailers. Some of the samples were then spiked with sugar syrups from different countries.
DNA barcoding allowed researchers not only to spot altered products but also to identify the country of origin for the added syrups. “To date, DNA methods haven’t been widely used to examine honey authenticity. But our study showed that this is a sensitive, reliable, and robust way to detect adulteration and confirm the origins of syrups added to the honey,” said Dr Anastasiadi. “The large variation of honey composition makes it particularly difficult to authenticate. So having this consistent technique in the testing armoury could take the sting out of honey fraud.”
Crucially, the two methods can be used together to increase the chances of detecting exogenous sugar adulteration in honey.
Dodd S, Kevei Z, Karimi Z team al (2024) Detection of sugar syrup adulteration in UK honey using DNA barcoding. Food Control, 167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2024.110772
Shehata M; Dodd S; Mosca S te al (2024) Application of Spatial Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) and Machine Learning for Sugar Syrup Adulteration Detection in UK Honey. Foods, 13, 2425. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13152425