title: Authentication of the botanical and geographical origin of honey by front-face fluorescence spectroscopy.
abstract: Front-face fluorescence spectroscopy, directly applied on honey samples, was used for the authentication of 11 unifloral and polyfloral honey types (n = 371 samples) previously classified using traditional methods such as chemical, pollen, and sensory analysis. Excitation spectra (220-400 nm) were recorded with the emission measured at 420 nm. In addition, emission spectra were recorded between 290 and 500 nm (excitation at 270 nm) as well as between 330 and 550 nm (excitation at 310 nm). A total of four different spectral data sets were considered for data analysis. Chemometric evaluation of the spectra included principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis; the error rates of the discriminant models were calculated by using Bayes' theorem. They ranged from <0.1% (polyfloral and chestnut honeys) to 9.9% (fir honeydew honey) by using single spectral data sets and from <0.1% (metcalfa honeydew, polyfloral, and chestnut honeys) to 7.5% (lime honey) by combining two data sets. This study indicates that front-face fluorescence spectroscopy is a promising technique for the authentication of the botanical origin of honey and may also be useful for the determination of the geographical origin within the same unifloral honey type.
authors.affiliation: Swiss Bee Research Centre/Agroscope Liebefeld-Posieux, Schwarzenburgstrasse 161, CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland. kaspar.ruoff@inframiel.ch
authors.forename: Kaspar
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ruoff
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Luginbühl
authors.forename: Raphael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Künzli
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bogdanov
authors.forename: Jacques Olivier
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Bosset
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: von der Ohe
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: von der Ohe
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Amado
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000502:physiology; D035264:Flowers; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis; D006722:Honey / Q000032:analysis* / Q000145:classification*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*