Honey Origin Authentication via Mineral Profiling Combined with Chemometric Approaches

Abstract

In the present study, the potential of elemental analysis combined with statistical tools to identify honey origin was evaluated by mineral characterization of 173 honeys of 13 floral types (acacia, fir, spruce, linden, chestnut, lavender, coriander, thistle, honeydew, rosemary, sage, euphorbia and ziziphus plant species) collected from five geographical regions (Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Morocco). The objective of the study was to accurately and reliably differentiate the mineral composition among honey varieties. The aim was to establish traceability, to ensure product authenticity and to improve quality control measures within the honey industry. For this purpose, 18 major, minor and trace elements were quantified using microwave digestion, followed by ICP-MS measurement. Statistical evaluation of elemental concentration was undertaken using principal component analysis (PCA) to distinguish honey floral types. The research give light on the specific elements that can serve as indicators for determining the geographical and botanical source of honey. Our findings indicate that certain elements, such as Mn, K, and Ca, are primarily influenced by the type of pollen present in the honey, making them indicative of the floral source. On the other hand, levels of Na, Mg, and Fe were found to be more strongly influenced by environmental factors and can be considered as markers of geographical origin. One novel aspect of this research is the exploration of the relationship between honey minerals and honey botanical source. This was achieved through the analysis of chestnut tree samples and a subsequent comparison with the composition of chestnut honey.

Multi-Element Profile Characterization of Monofloral and Polyfloral Honey from Latvia

“…• is higher than reports of Ethiopian [54] and Serbian honey [21]; • could be considered the same-but with higher means-as Estonian [55], Yemenian [56], Moroccan [57], Argentinian [58], Brazilian, and Portuguese honey [59]; • could be considered the same-but with lower means-as Polish [60][61][62], Slovenian flower [63], Hungarian linden [64], Romanian linden [65], Bulgarian linden [66], Italian [67], Malaysian [68], and New Zealand honey [69];…”

“…• could be considered the same-but with lower means-as Polish [60][61][62], Slovenian flower [63], Hungarian linden [64], Romanian linden [65], Bulgarian linden [66], Italian [67], Malaysian [68], and New Zealand honey [69];…”

Elemental Fingerprinting Combined with Machine Learning Techniques as a Powerful Tool for Geographical Discrimination of Honeys from Nearby Regions

“…Thus, the accuracy of the models cannot be easily assessed if compared with data presented in the literature. Few studies have investigated the authentication of honey in terms of both geographical and botanical origin [37,42,49,60]. Often the data were not processed with classification algorithms [42,49].…”

“…The elemental composition of honey has been characterized worldwide. Recent studies investigated honeys from Argentina [48], Bulgaria [40,49,50], China [43,[51][52][53], Croatia [42,49,54,55], Denmark [56], Egypt [57], Eritrea [58], Ethiopia [59], France [60], Germany [56], Greece [37,57,61], Hungary [62,63], Israel [64], Italy [37,38,46,[65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73], Kazakhstan [73], Kosovo [74], Montenegro [75], Morocco [49,57], New Zealand [45,56], Poland [37], Romania [37,60], Serbia [74], Slovenia [49], Spain [57,...…”

“…Typically, data management and elaboration involve multivariate analysis and machine-learning techniques, including Principal Component Analysis (PCA) [38,59], Cluster Analysis (CA) [37,39], Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) [57,59], Partial Least Squares regression (PLS) [37,52], Decision Tree Analysis (DTA) [56], Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) [40], and Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) [60]. Few papers in the literature report cases where elemental fingerprinting has discriminated honeys according to their botanical and geographical origin [37,42,49,60]. Research often focuses on authenticating honeys from various origins based on botanical sources or regions with unique climates, soils, or levels of urbanization.…”