5
generates a ‘fi ngerprint’ and, using a database of honey fi ngerprints, users can compare the tested sample with all reference samples, in order to check for compliance. This quickly allows to detect the presence of sugar syrups, but also to check compliance of declared country of origin and botanical source. Furthermore, comparison with reference samples from the same fl oral source allows quick deduction of atypical profi les which can then be investigated further, detecting new methods of fraud as they are implemented.
It is the high reproducibility of NMR that allows it to create such a robust database of reference samples (fi ngerprints) and to make sure that the variations observed between spectra are real and not due to analytical drift. Once the fi ngerprint is acquired, the data can be reprocessed at any time using new techniques and algorithms, even years later and compare this to the honey database, which currently contains 18,000 reference samples, covering more than 50 countries and 100 botanical varieties. It also includes 1,900 known adulterated honeys with sugar syrups, which is necessary to identify the specifi c markers of adulterated honeys compared to pure honey. An example comparison of a single compliant honey sample and a fraudulent honey sample (Figure 1) shows how the adulterants can be identifi ed.
Due to its unique universal capabilities, 1H-NMR, combined with multivariate statistical chemometrics, is proving to be a powerful tool for determining the authenticity and quality of honey which permits the preparation of a detailed analysis report (Figure 2).
Fighting fraud in the future
Food fraud is a major issue threatening the beekeeping community. As fraud continues to grow, consumers will lose confidence in honey and standard methods for determining authenticity are proving no longer effective.
The combination of NMR with statistical analysis represents a powerful alternation for the analysis of honey authenticity and its country of origin. Technologies, such as the FoodScreener™ platform, are meeting the demand for reliable testing, with emerging software modules such as Honey-Profiling™, to tackle these issues and make it very hard, likely impossible, for fraudsters to continue to deceive tests by the addition of foreign chemicals and syrups. In doing so, fraud can be exposed quickly and successfully without unreasonable expense.
For more information on the FoodScreener Honey Profi ling 2.0, please visit
https://www.bruker.com/products/mr/nmr-food-screening/honey-profi ling-module-of-
the-nmr-foodscreener.html.
References:
1.
Marketresearchfuture.com. (2018). Honey Market Size, Share, Trends, Global Industry Analysis, 2023 | MRFR. [online] Available at: https://www.
marketresearchfuture.com/reports/honeymarket-5139
2. Norberto L. García (2018) The Current Situation on the International Honey Market, Bee World, 95:3, 89-94, DOI: 10.1080/0005772X.2018.1483814
3. Enhanced honey authenticity surveillance (2018 to 2019 Report), Government of Canada,
https://inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/science-and-research/our-research- and-publications/report/eng/1557531883418/1557531883647
About the author Figure 2: Detailed analysis report for a single honey sample showing compliance.
Léa Heintz graduated with a Master of Science in Analytical Chemistry. She worked several years as an application scientist at Bruker, developing NMR methods for food matrices to monitor authenticity and quality. She is now working as a business development and product manager for the Applied NMR portfolio which comprises the FoodScreener platform and its screening methods.
Read, Share and Comment on this Article, visit:
www.labmate-online.com/article The Pearl, Liquid Transmission Accessory
Infrared spectroscopy of some liquids is best accomplished in transmission mode, where the whole sample is exposed to the path of the infrared beam. The advantages over ATR include higher sensitivity and accurate determination of pathlength – essential for accurate quantitation.
Traditional liquid transmission cells are simple in construction, consisting of no more than two IR transmitting windows and a thin spacer clamped together with backing plates. Although simple by design, their use can be complicated by viscous samples which may stick or apply unevenly to the windows.
These same samples are also diffi cult to introduce and clean from a cell, requiring careful reassembly after each sample. This makes accurate and repeatable control of the pathlength near impossible.
The Pearl™ liquid transmission accessory from Specac holds the innovative horizontally mounted Oyster™ cell, consisting of two precision machined window holders which match to provide a highly repeatable pathlength without the use of spacers.
51741pr@reply-direct.com
Collaboration for Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Biomarkers Announced
Shimadzu introduces the collaboration with the Clinical Laboratory and Proteomics Platform of the CHU University Hospital of Montpellier, France. With the team of professors Sylvain Lehmann and Christophe Hirtz, they focus on MS based blood amyloid-beta analysis for early screening of amyloid-positive subjects. The cooperation plans to conduct a joint cohort study from the Memory Resources and Research Center (Professor Audrey Gabelle) to evaluate whether this simple blood analysis method enables early and accurate prediction of amyloid pathology in the brain with an easy-to-acquire blood sample.
Unlike conventional positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and cerebrospinal fl uid (CSF) testing methods, Shimadzu’s blood amyloid-beta analysis method is minimally invasive and suitable for large-scale deployment. It is a new-approach blood analysis capable of being used for the research of detecting abnormal amyloid-beta concentration which can be a marker for amyloid pathology in the brain.
These new blood-based biomarkers were discovered in 2014 by Shimadzu and the Japanese National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology (NCGG). Although the screening analysis is Research Use Only and cannot diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, it is ideal for opening the door to new advancements in research, identifying suitable candidates for clinical trials and helping pharmaceutical company to test candidate drugs.
The blood analysis works using a combination of immunoprecipitation and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (IP-MS). This technique was fi rst established by a team of scientists including Shimadzu’s Koichi Tanaka, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002 for developing a method for mass spectrometric analysis of biological macromolecules.
The CHU of Montpellier is part of Shimadzu’s European Innovation Center (EUIC) program. The EUIC merges the cutting-edge analytical technologies of Shimadzu with game- changing topics and expertise in markets and science covered by opinion leaders, strategic thinkers and scientifi c experts in order to create new solutions for tomorrow.
More information online:
ilmt.co/PL/3kj0 52396pr@reply-direct.com
WWW.LABMATE-ONLINE.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
