Classification of honeydew and blossom honeys
by discriminant analysis

by S Bogdanov & M Gfeller

EXCERPTS:

In Switzerland and other countries honeys are very often labelled
only either as honeydew (forest) or blossom (polyfloral) honey.
Electrical conductivity is the honey parameter most widely used for
distinguishing between these two honey types.

According to the EU honey standard the electrical conductivity
of blossom honeys should be below 0.8 mS/cm, while that of
honeydew honeys should exceed that value.

Generally, the electrical conductivity of mixed blossom-honeydew
honeys lies between 0.5 and 0.8 mS/cm, while the values of
pure blossom honeys are below 0.5 mS/cm

However, there are many exceptions to this rule. Chestnut,
arbutus, erica, eucalyptus and linden honeys, just to mention
several exceptions, are regarded as blossom honeys, but have often
electrical conductivity values above 0.8 mS/cm

Other parameters such as pH value ,
or the sum of the glucose and fructose content (G+F),
have also been used for the differentiation
between blossom and honeydew honey.

With G+F a good discrimination of both honey groups is also
obtained (88-90% of correct classifications). The correct classification
with electrical conductivity was between 66 and 74 % while the
pH value had a relatively poor discriminant capacity (53 to 60 %).

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pb

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