Introduction

• Honey is the natural sweet substance produced by bees (Apis mellifera)  from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant-sucking insects on the living parts of plants, which the bees collect, transform by combining with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store and leave in honeycombs to ripen and mature.
• The colour and flavour of honeys differ depending on the nectar source, age, and storage conditions. Honey made primarily from the nectar of one type of flower is called monofloral honey, whereas honey made from several types of flowers is called polyfloral honey.
• Monofloral honey typically has a high commercial value in the marketplace due to its distinctive flavour. However, most commercially available honey is a blend of honeys differing in floral source and geographic origin.
• The composition of honey is rather variable and depends primarily on its floral and geographical source, but certain external factors, such as processing, packaging and storage conditions, also play an important role.
• Sugars are the main components of honey. The nectar and honeydew, respectively, are transformed into honey by the bee enzymes diastase (amylases) and invertase (a- glucosidase) during storage and maturation in the beehive. During this process, diastase and invertase catalyse the conversion of the sugars of nectar and honeydew into fructose and glucose, the main constituents of honey. The result is a complex mixture made up of about 70% monosaccharides and 10-15% disaccharides composed of glucose and fructose with the glycosidic bond in different positions and configurations. In addition, there are also minor components consisting of about 25 oligosaccharides.

Legislation and honey market

Honey adulteration

• Adulteration by sweeteners is one of the most important authenticity issues. The simplest way to adulterate honey involves the addition of sugar (syrups) directly to honey.
• Honey adulteration has evolved from the basic addition of sucrose and water to specially produced syrups which mimic the sugar composition of natural honey. For instance, the addition of fructose or industrial glucose could change the fructose /glucose ratio, which has to be 1 – 1.2 in pure honey. Moreover, some other carbohydrate ratios could be used to ascertain honey authenticity.
• Indirect adulteration by feeding of sugar (syrups) during the main nectar flow period is the second way to adulterate honey; correct beekeeping practice should ensure that sweeteners used to feed bees do not adulterate honey. Indirect adulteration is extremely
  difficult to detect.