Romanian honey authentication using voltammetric electronic tongue. Correlation of voltammetric data with physico-chemical parameters and phenolic compounds

The usefulness of voltammetric electronic tongue (Ag/AgCl reference electrode, glassy counter electrode and Au, Ag, Pt or glassy working electrode) honey botanical authentication (acacia, sunflower, tilia, honeydew, and polyfloral) was evaluated. The electrochemical data were submitted to principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) in order to assess the usefulness of the working electrode when determining honey's botanical origin. The silver and gold electrodes have classified honey much better according to its botanical origin than the glass electrode and the platinum electrode. According to partial least square (PLS) analysis, the electrochemical data were strongly correlated with the pH (R-2 = 0.98), free acidity (R-2 = 0.97) and electrical conductivity (R-2 = 0.91).