title: NIR detection of honey adulteration reveals differences in water spectral pattern.
abstract: High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was mixed with four artisanal Robinia honeys at various ratios (0-40%) and near infrared (NIR) spectra were recorded with a fiber optic immersion probe. Levels of HFCS adulteration could be detected accurately using leave-one-honey-out cross-validation (RMSECV=1.48; R(2)CV=0.987), partial least squares regression and the 1300-1800nm spectral interval containing absorption bands related to both water and carbohydrates. Aquaphotomics-based evaluations showed that unifloral honeys contained more highly organized water than the industrial sugar syrup, supposedly because of the greater variety of molecules dissolved in the multi-component honeys. Adulteration with HFCS caused a gradual reduction of water molecular structures, especially water trimers, which facilitate interaction with other molecules. Quick, non-destructive NIR spectroscopy combined with aquaphotomics could be used to describe water molecular structures in honey and to detect a rather common form of adulteration.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food and Agricultural Product Qualification, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Kaposvár University, 40 Guba Sándor Str, Kaposvár 7400, Hungary; Biomeasurement Technology Laboratory, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501, Japan. Electronic address: bazar@agrilab.hu.
authors.forename: György
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bázár
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food and Agricultural Product Qualification, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Kaposvár University, 40 Guba Sándor Str, Kaposvár 7400, Hungary.
authors.forename: Róbert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Romvári
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food and Agricultural Product Qualification, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Kaposvár University, 40 Guba Sándor Str, Kaposvár 7400, Hungary.
authors.forename: András
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Szabó
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food and Agricultural Product Qualification, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Kaposvár University, 40 Guba Sándor Str, Kaposvár 7400, Hungary.
authors.forename: Tamás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Somogyi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food and Agricultural Product Qualification, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Kaposvár University, 40 Guba Sándor Str, Kaposvár 7400, Hungary.
authors.forename: Viktória
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Éles
authors.affiliation: Biomeasurement Technology Laboratory, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501, Japan. Electronic address: rtsen@kobe-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Roumiana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tsenkova
mesh_terms: D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D066248:High Fructose Corn Syrup / Q000737:chemistry*; D006722:Honey / Q000032:analysis*; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000379:methods*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D066248:High Fructose Corn Syrup; D014867:Water
keywords: Adulteration; Aliment; Aquaphotomics; Fraud; Fructose; Honey; Near infrared spectroscopy; Water