Honey is a high value food which suffers from food fraud, and it is important to have methods to verify its floral and geographical origin. Italian researchers isolated DNA from nine honeys (six monofloral honeys produced in Italy, two polyfloral honeys produced in East Europe and Chile respectively, and one honeydew honey), and PCR amplified for a chloroplast trnL barcoding fragment. The amplicons were sequenced and the data bioinformatically analysed against a database of 150,000 botanical entries. A total of 254 botanical groups were identified from the nine analysed samples.

The prevalent expected botanical origin was confirmed in five out of six monofloral honeys. The plant signature of the labelled lime tree blossom honey did not confirm the expected botanical prevalence. The botanical composition of monofloral and polyfloral honey samples was useful to infer their geographical origin. 

Read the abstract at: NGS authentication of honey

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