Hans-Peter Sieper

Honey is a high-value commodity, whose quality is defined both by its botanical and geographical origin. This generates a strong consumer demand for certain, premium-priced products, which have become the target for adulterations. A useful tool to detect the addition of sugar to honey products is based on the well-documented difference in δ13C values between C3 (natural honey) and C4 (added sugar) plants. Coupling high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with isotope ratio mass spectrometry (LC–IRMS) has the unrivaled advantage of the simultaneous determination of δ13C values from glucose, fructose, di-, tri-, and oligo-saccharides, allowing the detection of more sophisticated honey adulteration with a simple user-friendly analytical system.