The qualities of selected honey samples of``Serra da LousaÄ '' (Portugal) from three consecutive harvests (20 samples from each harvest) were evaluated by determing the pollen spectrum and physicochemical attributes. The following determinations were carried out: moisture, electrical conductivity, hydroxymethylfurfural, diastase activity, pH, acidity (free, lactone and total), formol number, reducing sugars, apparent sucrose, insoluble material and ash. The samples were found to meet all major national and international honey speci®cations. Honeys were considered to be mono¯oral whenever the dominant pollen was found to be over 45% of total pollen. From the 60 studied samples, 70% were mono¯oral honeys from Erica sp., 17% mono¯oral honeys from Ericaceae (Erica sp. and Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull) and 13% multi¯oral honeys with a high percentage of Erica sp.

The main purpose of this study was the characterisation of 'Serra da Lousã' heather honey by using novel statistical methodology, relevant principal component analysis, in order to assess the correlations between production year, locality and composition. Herein, we also report its chemical composition in terms of sugars, glycerol and ethanol, and physicochemical parameters. Sugars profiles from 'Serra da Lousã' heather and 'Terra Quente de Trás-os-Montes' lavender honeys were compared and allowed the discrimination: 'Serra da Lousã' honeys do not contain sucrose, generally exhibit lower contents of turanose, trehalose and maltose and higher contents of fructose and glucose. Different localities from 'Serra da Lousã' provided groups of samples with high and low glycerol contents. Glycerol and ethanol contents were revealed to be independent of the sugars profiles. These data and statistical models can be very useful in the comparison and detection of adulterations during the quality control analysis of 'Serra da Lousã' honey.