Estimation of honey authenticity by multielements characteristics using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) combined with chemometrics.

In our study the mineral content of 55 honey samples, which represented three different types of honey: honeydew, buckwheat and rape honey from different areas in Poland, was evaluated. Determination of 13 elements (Al, B, Ba, Ca, Cd, Cu, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Zn) was performed using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. We tried to prove that the analysis of quality and quantity of honey elements could be used to define honey origin by using ICP-MS as a technique for simultaneous determination of elements. Chemometric methods, such as CA and PCA, were applied to classify honey according to mineral content. CA showed three clusters corresponding to the three botanical origins of honey. PCA permitted the reduction of 13 variables to four principal components explaining 77.19% of the total variance. The first most important principal component was strongly associated with the value of K, Al, Ni and Cd. This study revealed that CA and PCA analysis appear useful tools for differentiation of honey samples authenticity using the profile of mineral content and they highlighted the relationship between the elements distribution and honey type. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.