Quality control parameters, antioxidant activity and chemometrics of Brazilian honey

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Bee honey presents beneficial properties for human health and is considered a high quality food. However, if the producer does not take the necessary care related to extraction and storage, honey suffers changes in its chemical composition reducing its quality. In order to evaluate the quality of commercial honey, some physicochemical analyses (moisture, electrical conductivity, soluble solids, ash, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), proline, color, antioxidant activity, Lund and Lugol reactions) of eleven honey samples from different producers and one corn glucose sample were performed. Honey samples were generally considered of good quality, displaying results within the standards allowed by Brazilian laws. The only analyses that were able to distinguish honey from corn glucose were: Lugol, HMF and proline, was well as the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the total results. Good correlation was found between electric conductivity versus ash, electric conductivity versus colour and ash versus colour; ED50 versus ash and colour versus ED50 presented an inverse correlation.