Novel method based on ion mobility spectroscopy for the quantification of adulterants in honeys

Abstract According to European Union Regulation, honey is a food product whose composition cannot be modified. However, high-quality honey is often adulterated by adding sweeteners of other sugar compounds. This paper studies the suitability of Ion Mobility Spectra from generated headspace as a method for the detection and discrimination of honey adulterated by different substances. A Box-Behnken design in conjunction with a response surface methodology was employed to optimize five different variables related to headspace generation (incubation temperature, incubation time, injection volume, weight of the samples and pre-heating time). The resulting model showed a regression coefficient of R2 = 88.07%, it is therefore suitable for a reliable selection of the experimental variables. Repeatability and intermediate precision were also evaluated, and coefficients of variation below 5% were obtained (CV of 4.6% and 4.2% respectively). The developed method has been applied to different samples resulting for the mixture of honey and other sweeteners at different percentages (10%–50%) in an attempt to mimic the adulterated products that are more commonly found in the market. A thorough and exact classification (100%) with regards to the presence/absence of adulterant as well as the type of adulterant used has been achieved. A Partial Least Squares regression model was completed in order to determine the percentage of the different adulterants. The prediction error was below 4% in all the cases. These results demonstrate the applicability of the developed method for the detection and quantification of adulterated honey with different adulterant contents.