Detection of adulterants in honey using a portable Raman Spectrometer
Abstract
Food adulteration is a growing problem worldwide. In the United States over half of honey consumed is provided with imported products as total domestic production of honey is unable to meet the demand. As pure, natural honey is a labor intensive, relatively expensive product it is a prime target for adulteration with less expensive sweeteners. Previously published work describes the detection of these adulterants in a strict laboratory environment with time consuming techniques and delicate instrumentation. Experiments confirm that adulterants such as high fructose corn syrup and rice malt syrup can be detected in honey using Raman Spectroscopy and portable equipment. When laser light is applied to the products, the result is a Raman signal of inelastically scattered photons representing the fingerprints of the various molecules. When this signal is detected and stored in a laptop computer it can be analyzed for characteristics peculiar to honey and to the adulterants.
- Publication:
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Masters Thesis
- Pub Date:
- 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016MsT.........23G
- Keywords:
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- Physics;Optics;Food science