NMR-Profiling in honey

Any addition to or tempering of the pure honey is regarded as adulteration (annex I and II of the EU Honey directive 2001/110). In 2021, 46 % of the honey imported into the EU was suspicious according to the EU coordinated action "From the Hives".

NMR-Profiling is a well-established analytical technique to identify adulteration in honey. It is a target method which uses fingerprint spectra and compares them to large databases.

The aim of the test is to identify whether the following honeys are adulterated:

• a blossom honey (country of origin and botanical variety will be announced),
• a honeydew honey (country of origin will be announced), and 
• a honey blend (country of origin will be announced).

P2528-RT is designed in cooperation with Bruker BioSpin GmbH and experienced laboratories. P2528-RT is one out of two tests, which are offered in 2025. The ring test is based on the Honey-Profiling testing method by Bruker BioSpin GmbH and covers the NMR-Profiling of different honeys regarding adulteration, marker assessment and origin. However, the ring test is open to users of Bruker systems as well as for any other types of systems.

The quantification of a selection of the most relevant parameters as listed below including sugars, organic acids, amino acids, indicators for fermenting, processing and markers are covered by this test.

The quantified concentration levels of the parameters mentioned above are evaluated with respect to the comparability criterion (z-score).

The final report summarises

• the statistical evaluation,
• databases used incl. versions,
• relevant aspects of the sample preparation, and of the analysis, 
• the final assessment (adulteration yes/no).

Further information, which is relevant to the analytical staff only is summarised in an annex of the report, such as

• the assessments for botanical variation and origin,
• the Honey-Profiling Analysis Reports of all participants (if used) in an anonymised way,
• the expert assessment of the participants (might be different from the final assessment above).

For reasons of fairness, only those participants, which provide details and assessments will receive the annex of the report. The data are considered as an exchange of knowledge between the participants and might help to identify shortcomings, built the basis for further discussion and thus help to enhance the quality of the applied method.

The license fee for the analysis of the samples of this proficiency test is kindly remitted by Bruker BioSpin GmbH.