New test distinguishes impure honey from the real thing

Washington, May 11 (ANI): In a new study, researchers in France are reporting development of a simple test for distinguishing 100 percent natural honeys from adulterated or impure versions that they say are increasingly being foisted off on consumers.

The study, by Bernard Herbreteau and colleagues from Universite de Lyon, France, points out that the high price of honey and its limited supply has led some beekeepers and food processors to fraudulently make and sell impure honey doped with inexpensive sweeteners, such as corn syrup.

These knock-offs are almost physically and chemically indistinguishable from the real thing. According to the researchers, scientists need a better way to identify adulterated honey.

Herbreteau and colleagues describe a new, highly sensitive test that uses a special type of chromatography to separate and identify complex sugars (polysaccharides) on their characteristic chemical fingerprints.

To test their method, the scientists obtained three different varieties of pure honey from a single beekeeper and then prepared adulterated samples of the honeys by adding 1 percent corn syrup.

They showed that the new technique accurately distinguished the impure honeys from the pure versions based on differences in their sugar content. (ANI)