Chemical and functional characteristics to detect sugar syrup adulteration in honey from different botanical origins

The objective of this study was to detect the changes in physicochemical and functional properties of raw and processed divergent honey varieties after adulterating with different sugar syrups. Specifically, when 25% to 55% cane syrup was added to raw Acacia honey, the HMF content increased from 46.25 to 101.6 mg/kg. In processed honey that contained 55% cane syrup, HMF content was even higher, reaching up to 402.47 mg/kg. The reported values for HMF (>80 mg/kg) content and DN (>8 DN) were above the described quality evaluation standard of honey. The results indicated that adulterating Acacia honey with up to 55% corn and corn syrup caused a reduction in diastase content to below 3.5 DN, and an increase in HMF content above 93.28 mg/kg. Similarly, adding 10% corn syrup to raw Ziziphus honey resulted in a decrease in both DPPH and ABTS+ values from 83.16% and 88.58%, respectively, to 72.83% and 76.97%. The findings in this study demonstrated that the addition of malt syrup (55%) to raw Trifolium honey resulted in an increase in the phytochemical content, with the TPC value reaching 805.15 mg GAE/100 g. However, processing Trifolium honey caused a significant decrease in TPC content to 505.15 mg GAE/100 g. This work highlights the need for more research into unexplored honey varieties and adulteration methods to improve quality evaluation standards and mitigate authenticity issues.