[EN] The new tendency to detect adulterated honey is the development of affordable analytical equipment
that is in-line and manageable, enabling rapid on site screening. Therefore, the aim of this work was to
apply an electronic tongue based on potential multistep pulse voltammetry, in combination with
multivariate statistical techniques to detect and quantify syrup in honey. Pure monofloral honey
(heather, orange blossom and sunflower), syrup (rice, barley and corn), and samples simulating adulterated
honey with different percentages of syrup (2.5, 5, 10, 20 and 40) were evaluated. An automatic,
electrochemical system for cleaning and polishing the electronic tongue sensors (Ir, Rh, Pt, Au) significantly
improved the repeatability and accuracy of the measurements. PCA analysis showed that the
proposed methodology is able to distinguish between types of pure honey and syrup, and their different
levels of adulterants. A subsequent PLS analysis successfully predicted the level of the adulterants in each
honey, achieving good correlations considering the adjusting parameters. The best results being for
sunflower honey adulterated with corn syrup and heather honey with barley syrup (r2 ¿ 0.997), and
heather with corn (r2 ¿ 0.994) whereas the weakest was found for heather honey adulterated with
brown rice syrup (r2 ¿ 0.763) and orange blossom honey with corn syrup (r2 ¿ 0.879). The measurement
system here proposed could be a very quick and effective option for the honey packaging sector with the
finality of providing information about a characteristic as important as the adulteration of honey.This study forms part of the projects funded by the "Agencia Estatal de Investigacion" (AGL2016-77702-R) and by the "Generalitat Valenciana" (AICO/2015/104) of Spain, for which the authors are grateful.Sobrino-Gregorio, L.; Bataller Prats, R.; Soto Camino, J.; Escriche Roberto, MI. (2018). Monitoring honey adulteration with sugar syrups using an automatic pulse voltammetric electronic tongue. Food Control. 91:254-260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2018.04.003S2542609
