Hi all, Just saw this published. The authors are concerned with analyzing the chemical composition of the honey made by free-flying bees vs. those that are fed HFCS and kept to a confined area so as not to forage. They do not look at bee health, or the honey made by free- flying bees following HFCS feeding... Not sure how relevant that is, since most people would be careful about not adding honey supers when feeding, but here it is anyway... Kurt Carbohydrate Composition of High-Fructose Corn Syrups (HFCS) Used for Bee Feeding: Effect on Honey Composition Ana Isabel Ruiz-Matute, Milagra Weiss, Diana Sammataro, Jennifer Finely, and Maria Luz Sanz Journal of Agricultural and Food chemistry pp 7317–7322 http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf100758x In this study, the carbohydrate composition of high-fructose corn syrups (HFCS) from commercial manufacturers as well as from beekeepers was characterized by GC-MS. Sucrose syrups (SS) were also included in this work for comparison. Fructosyl-fructoses and some unknown carbohydrates, which could correspond to fructosyl-glucoses, have been detected in HFCS for the first time, whereas SS were mainly characterized by the high contents of sucrose. Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) content of samples supplied by beekeepers was much more variable; the mean level of HMF was 64.61 ppm (±16.92 ppm, 95% CI ranging from 26.91 to 102.31 ppm). Syrups were used to feed caged bees and the resulting honeys produced were analyzed in order to determine their influence in carbohydrate composition. Fructosyl- fructoses were mainly detected in honeys from bees fed with HFCS, but not from those honeys coming from free-flying bees or bees fed with SS. *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm