Analysis of sugars and honey 2
Sweet-tasting foods are very popular. Therefore, different sugars (e.g., sucrose) or sweeteners (such as aspartame or stevia) or sugar substitutes (such as xylitol, erythritol and sorbitol) are often added to foods. There are also foods without additives that naturally contain high amounts of sugars. In order to identify adulteration and contamination, among other things, or to ensure diabetic-friendly foods, appropriate analysis is necessary. For example, bioanalysis can be used to draw conclusions about the origin and product identity, which is essential for a natural product such as honey.
Overview Food AnalysisSweet honey with a bitter aftertaste
Not all honey is the same. There are for example qualitative differences and e.g., impurities are determined chromatographically. Two examples:
Chloramphenicol (CAP) - a widely used broad spectrum antibiotic
CAP is often used as a bacteriostatic antimicrobial agent in honey production. The negative impacts of CAP on human health is widely known, which makes the compound an unacceptable substance for use with any food producing animals such as honey bees.
Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) - indicator of heat-treatment
HMF occurs naturally in most honeys and can be used as an indicator for heat-treatment or for overlong storage time at elevated temperatures. It is formed by the dehydration of certain sugars. The content of HMF in honey is regulated by food law, for instance in Germany the Regulation for honey (Honig Verordnung) sets the limit for fresh honey at 40 mg/kg.
Download Application Note Chloramphenicol from honey
Download Application Note HMF in honey
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General chromatographic analysis of sugars and sugar substitutes (sweeteners)
Many different sugars and sweeteners or sugar substitutes are used to make foods taste sweeter. The most common compounds include:
Sugars
Glucose, fructose, lactose, maltose, sucrose (common table sugar)
Sweeteners and sugar substitutes (often sugar alcohols)
Sorbitol, mannitol, isomalt, maltitol, xylitol, erythritol, steviol glycosides (stevia), aspartame, sucralose, neotame, acesulfame potassium, saccharin, advantame...
- Determination of sugars in apple juice
Go to application 114620
- Retention times of sugars and sugar alcohols
Go to application 114160
- Analysis of sweeteners on core-shell phase
Go to application 128500
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Colorants in candy
Sweets are not only made to be tasty, they also have to look tasty. Therefore, the recipe of sweets, such as candies, gummy bears and pastries (e.g. donuts, cakes), often contains added colorants. Color intensifies the eating experience. These colorants are for example aromatic carbon compounds containing chromophores which alter the absorption of light. Our eyes detect that specific absorption and we see the color. These special compounds are naturally or synthetically produced. Being able to identify and quantify color additives in food is essential from production to consumption.
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Pathogen detection in honey bees
Honey bees are affected by a wide variety of parasites and pathogens. The pathogens, for example spore-forming microorganisms, microsporids or viruses, are often latent in the raw honey. The worldwide decline in pollinator populations and their importance for agriculture are putting the purification of genomic DNA from honey bees, pollen or honey more in the focus of research laboratories. With the NucleoMag VET kit you can effectively extract nucleic acids from honey and pollen for subsequent PCR-based detection of bee pathogens. This efficient method can help you quickly and reliably screen your honey bee hives for the presence of pathogens and contribute to colony health.
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Isolation of genomic DNA from honey or pollen
The physiochemical and biological properties of honey are directly associated to its floral origin and are important quality feature of commercially traded honey. E.g., Monofloral honeys are perceived as better quality products, being the most appreciated by consumers. Molecular biological methods such as metabarcoding or PCR-based methods are valuable tools for identification of botanical and geographical origin of honey or for detecting honey laundering and food fraud. MACHEREY‑NAGEL has developed verified protocols for the efficient nucleic acid extraction from honey and polen for your DNA-based quality control of honey.
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Automated Nucleic Acid Extraction / HTP
Automation is an important building block to standardize your molecular biology workflows in the laboratory and to obtain better consistency and reliability of your results even with heterogeneous, complex food matrices. MACHEREY‑NAGEL's NucleoSpin 8/96 Food und NucleoMag DNA Food Extraction Kits are optimized solutions for automated nucleic acid extraction systems from a wide range of sample types. The extracted DNA is free of inhibitors, has optimal quality and is therefore ideally suited for all common assays such as quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) or sequencing. Benefit from our automation expertise and get a reproducible, simple and effective method to cope with the increasing number of samples in food diagnostics and hygiene monitoring.
Benefit from our many years of automation expertise! Contact us for technical support and tailored solutions for your automation project!
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Fast control of sugar content in drinks and food
The monosaccharides glucose and fructose are common sweeteners in many different beverages, syrups and processed foods. Control of sugar content plays an essential role in food quality control. Chromatographic methods often take too long and are therefore unsuitable in routine process control. The reflectometric evaluation of QUANTOFIX Total Sugar test strips on the QUANTOFIX Relax offers a very fast and uncomplicated alternative. The results are displayed after only 1 minute and printed directly.
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Industrial filtration in the sugar industry
Nowadays, sugar production primarily uses sugar beet and sugar cane. Both plants contain a large amount of sucrose. This must be extracted from the plants in an industrial process. First, a concentrate is produced, from which the sugar is crystallized later in the process.
For optimal process control and for the payment of the farmers, the content of crystallizable sugar must already be determined during the incoming goods inspection. In addition to sucrose content, other factors such as potassium or alpha-nitrogen content also play a role here. Therefore, the sugar beet extract is filtered by an automated filtration system (e.g. VENEMA). For these systems, a particularly tear-resistant, fast-filtering paper with good retention is required, such as MN 672.
