Rheological determination of molecular weight of honey adulterated with high fructose corn syrup

Adulteration of honey represents an essential quality assurance concern in the utilisation of this natural product. Honey was serially diluted with high fructose corn syrup and analysed for its rheological profiles at 27 degrees C. Pure honey at ambient temperatures exhibits a peculiar non-Newtonian rheological behaviour while the behaviour of fructose syrup tends towards Newtonian. The adulteration of honey with this material drags its viscosity towards Newtonian flow behaviour. The results show that the Carreau-Yasuda model correlates the rheology of pure honey samples. Parameters of the Carreau-Yasuda model were observed to reflect the quality of the samples and thus aided their classification. Modified with the insertion of the Mark-Houwink's relation, the Carreau-Yasuda model yielded average molecular weight data on the samples. The Structural Kinetic Model was utilised to give rheological structural information and a second independent assessment of average molecular weight from the rheograms. The average molecular weight of 202 g/mol was obtained using the Structural Kinetic model, while 205 g/mol was obtained using the amended Carreau-Yasuda model.