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Honey adulterations can be carried out by addition of inexpensive sugar syrups, such as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and inverted syrup (IS). Carbohydrate composition of 20 honey samples (16 nectar and 4 honeydew honeys) and 6 syrups has been studied by GC and GC−MS in order to detect differences between both sample groups. The presence of difructose anhydrides (DFAs) in these syrups is described for the first time in this paper; their proportions were dependent on the syrup type considered. As these compounds were not detected in any of the 20 honey samples analyzed, their presence in honey is proposed as a marker of adulteration. Detection of honey adulteration with HFCS and IS requires a previous enrichment step to remove major sugars (monosaccharides) and to preconcentrate DFAs. A new methodology based on yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) treatment has been developed to allow the detection of DFAs in adulterated honeys in concentrations as low as 5% (w/w). Keywords: Adulteration; honey; syrup; difructose anhydrides (DFAs); yeast; GC−MS.

Analysis of volatile composition of honey by solid phase microextraction and gas chromatographymass spectrometry Honey aroma is largely dependent on its volatile fraction, which in turn is influenced by nectar composition and by possible modifications after harvesting. Solid phase microextraction (SPME) allows a simple and rapid fractionation of volatile compounds in honey as a prior step to their GC-MS qualitative and quantitative determination. A simple SPME-based procedure has been developed for GC-MS analysis of honey volatiles and applied to the study of 6 different commercial honeys. The possibility of honey characterization from the analytical data obtained by the SPME method is discussed.