Detection of jaggery syrup in honey using near-infrared spectroscopy.

In the present study, a near-infrared (NIR) filter-based technique along with chemometrics as an analytical tool was used for determination of adulteration of Indian honey with jaggery. A total of 56 honey samples adulterated with different concentrations of jaggery syrup were analyzed using the NIR transflectance method at different wavelengths for multivariate analysis to develop a calibration model for jaggery adulteration in honey samples. The data were compressed using principal component analysis method and the model was developed using partial least square regression. The adulteration of all of the samples can be predicted with a standard error of calibration of 4.55 and a coefficient of determination (R(2)) of 0.81. The results demonstrate that the NIR technique along with chemometrics can be successfully used to determine jaggery adulteration in honey non-destructively.