Monofloral honeys are generally defined by their pollen count; to be labelled as monofloral, the honey must contain a minimum proportion of pollen from the named flora. These minimum legal criteria are not consistent between different EU Member States. Pollen identification by microscopy is also becoming a rarer skill amongst analysts.
In this proof of concept study (here – open access) the authors propose an alternative approach using the pattern of polyphenols as a marker of botanical origin. They measured a panel of polyphenols by UPLC-MSMS and used Principal Component Analysis to classify them for Hungarian acacia honeys. The results not only correlated with botanical but also with regional origin. The variation was driven by three key polyphenols; caffeic acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid and p-coumaric acid.
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