Application of carbohydrate analysis to verify honey authenticity

Gas chromatography and liquid chromatography have been used simultaneously to analyze sugars in honey. After statistical processing by principal components analysis, additions of exogenous sugars could be detected by the appropriate fingerprints of adulteration. Application to acacia, chestnut and lavender honeys enabled the detection of fraud resulting from 5 to 10% addition of sugar syrups. This method may be considered as a replacement of isotopic analysis, that has some limitations. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.