Quantitative Analysis of Sugars (Fructose, Glucose, and Sucrose) in Honey by FTIR

Introduction

Honey has attracted attention as a health food which contains vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, and is also used in foods and beverages. However, some products are susceptible to adulteration, for example, by intentionally adding cheap corn syrup, in order to reduce manufacturing costs. Although adulteration of honey with corn syrup does not cause any serious health problems, the resulting loss of consumer confidence has an adverse effect on market growth. Therefore, in quality control, the development of a simple analytical technique which makes it possible to determine whether substitutes have been added to　honey has been demanded. Infrared (IR) spectrophotometry is an effective technique for identifying the components contained in honey because organic compounds each display a different spectrum, and chemometrics (PLS: partial-least squares method) and multiple regression analysis of the IR spectra obtained by IR spectrophotometry enables quick quantitative analysis of multiple components. In this article, a quantitative analysis of the sugars contained in several honey samples was conducted using a Shimadzu Fourier transform IR spectrophotometer.

August 19, 2020 GMT