Honey authenticity and beyond, using a multi-tier testing regime to address the untold challenges in the honey industry

The global honey market size was valued at USD 9.01 billion in 2022 and is predicted to increase by 5.03% annually. Consequently, honey adulteration and counterfeiting are common practices around the world resulting in a negative impact on the honey industry and consumers. Currently, most fraud is committed by blending honey with one or more syrups however new adulteration techniques have been developed to bypass current testing methodologies.

There is a clear need to move to faster and smarter testing regimes beyond current minimal targeted approaches. In this webinar we present an enhancement to the well-established two-tier testing strategy which not only addresses fraud but also other key attributes such as quality, potency, and purity.

Utilizing field deployable FTIR spectroscopy for rapid and facile first tier screening, followed by High Resolution Accurate Mass (HRAM) analysis using LC/Q-TOF and lastly a GC/Q-TOF mass spectrometry methods. This work is representative of varieties of honey from several botanical origins across the globe and is designed to address multiple challenges facing the honey industry and end consumers.

Learning Outcomes

• The current strategies to assess honey authentication and adulteration.
• Gain an understanding of the various challenges that exist from an industry perspective.
• Understand the role of HRAM and chemometrics for confirmatory analysis and the steps involved to successfully develop and deploy such technology for routine analysis.

Presenter: Sufyan Pandor (LC/MS Field Application Specialist, Agilent Technologies)

Sufyan is currently finishing his PhD under the supervision of Professor Chris Elliott at the Institute of Global Food Security where he has developed several high throughput mass spectrometry-based workflows to address various analytical challenges in the food industry.Sufyan has been with Agilent Technologies for 12 years of which the last two he has spent working as an Automation Product Specialist covering the UK, Ireland, and Nordics. Previously his role as an LCMS Application Specialist was to support Life Science customers and support collaborations with both industry and academia.

Presenter: Sunil Pinnamaneni (Head of Research & Development, Sanad Abu Dhabi)

Sunil is currently Head of Research & Development at Sanad AD. Previously he was instrumental in obtaining RMP approval for UAE-produced honey to be able to be exported to the EU and UK for the first time. Beyond expertise from a regulatory perspective Sunil has a strong background in analytical chemistry coupled with management experience in both commercial and government sectors. He worked for one of the biggest manuka honey companies in New Zealand for a decade before joining the government in UAE to run their research operations on UAE honeys. Sunil is also the founder of two establishments: 1. Zealandia Power Foods, a fast-growing exporter of New Zealand Manuka honey to the Netherlands and UAE; 2. The Experiment Company which is an R&D company working on cutting-edge research on active compounds in native New Zealand honey.