::: Application Flash
Determination of Honey Purity and Quality
by Polarimetry
Honey processing industries use polarimeters to distinguish
between blossom and honeydew honeys due to opposed
optical rotations. The specific rotation in honey is a quality
parameter according to several international standards.
Getting quality control in honey ready for the future
Good to know
According to their origins, honeys are devided into honeydew honeys and
nectar honeys. Whereas honeydew honeys are produced by honey bees
from excretions from plant sucking insects, nectar honeys are made up of
the nectar or secretions of plants. In various countries methods for quality
control in honeydew and nectar honeys demand the determination of
optical rotation for purity analysis according to the European Honey
Directive and the Codex Alimentarius.
As honeydew and nectar honeys show
opposed optical rotations, polarimetry
is used in quality control for purity
analysis.
Both kind of honeys can be distinguished by optical rotation as honeydew
honeys show positive optical rotations, while in nectar honeys the optical
rotation is negative. This is caused by opposed optical rotations of fructose
and glucose / sucrose, which add up in a concentration dependent manner.
Optical rotation in honeys is therefore determined by the composition and
concentration of sugars and used in quality control to determine the
contamination of honeydew honeys with blossom honeys and vice versa.
Other Anton Paar instruments
relevant for the application
Quality control in honey processing
industry demands the determination of
moisture, what can easily be done with
Anton Paar´s Abbemat-type
refractometers.
Next generation quality control in honey industry
Anton Paar´s MCP 200, 300, 500 comes with a Peltier temperature control
as a standard and works with a resolution of up to ± 0.0001° with a
repeatability of up to 0.001° optical rotation. To easen up the determination
of optical rotation, warming of samples to up to 40 °C might be required.
This can easily be done as every MCP 200, 300, 500 comes with a Peltier
temperature control as a standard, allowing temperature control in the
range of 10 °C to 45 °C with an accuracy of up to 0.03 °C.
The high resolution range of MCP 200, 300, 500 allows highly precise
analysis of optical rotation in honey. This highly accurate analysis of honey
sugar content makes every MCP 200, 300, 500 a valuable tool in honey
quality control.
Do you have any questions?
Contact Anton Paar directly:
[email protected]
D02IA001EN-B
www.anton-paar.com