Chemometric and multielement techniques for the exploratory analysis of honey quality from different geographical origin

Abstract

The proximal and mineral profiles of multi floral honeys from different geographic regions were determined and related to their origin. Moisture, °Brix sugars, ash, pH, free acidity, water activity (aw) and minerals content were determined by AOAC methods. In the exploratory analysis, non-supervised chemometric methods were applied to build classification rules and relate the origin of the samples based on their physicochemical parameters and mineral content. The means of the physicochemical parameters obtained were °Brix-sugars (82.44±1.68%), moisture (16.49±1.19%), pH (3.97±0.22), free acidity (24.07±6.79 meq/kg), aw (0.59±0.02), ash (0.24±0.11%). These values demonstrate the high quality of the honey analyzed. Among the minerals, K was the most abundant in all samples, ranging between 363.26-2034.11 mg/kg followed by P (45.43-115.63 mg/kg), while Cu was the least abundant (0.18-2.02 mg/Kg). The results showed differences in composition and mineral profile between honeys from different regions. The first three factors of the Principal Component Analysis method explained more than 67% of the variance and minerals had the highest discriminatory power, while hierarchical cluster analysis successfully classified the honey samples. The results show that mineral content is a capable geographical indicator to identify the origin of honey and the use of chemometric methods with proximal analysis and mineral content could be applied to determine the quality and authenticity of honey.