TKF Science Writing

We have all heard about the health virtues of honey and how it is a good alternative to sugar. We put it in tea, on toast, and pair it with peanut butter instead of jelly.

Due to the limited supply of honey and its high price, some beekeepers and traders have been known to add cheap sugar syrup substitutes to natural honey. The most common additions are corn syrups, inverted syrups and high fructose corn syrup. An inverted syrup is basically a product formed from the breakdown of sucrose into its components, glucose and fructose. All of these syrups are made up of different sugars which can be manipulated to resemble the carbohydrate profile of honey.

Researchers at the University of Lyon in France have proposed a chromatography technique to detect the possiblities of added sugar in honey. In a study published in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry, these researchers are trying to detect the presence of corn syrup polysaccharides in honey.

Polysaccharides are complex carbohydrates made up of chains of monosaccharide and/or disaccharide units. Cellulose, glucose, and starch all fall into this category. This study focused on the addition of a particular group of polysaccharides found in high fructose corn syrup.

To do this, three pure samples of honey were used and then doped with 1% corn syrup. The researchers found that they were successfully able to indicate the presence of corn syrup polysaccharides through chromatograph separation techniques.

The researchers hope that this technique could be used as a standard tool to measure the quality of honey being delivered to grocery store shelves. It also could have ramifications for other products such as juices and maple syrup as well.