Determination of honey quality components by near infrared reflectance spectroscopy

SUMMARYNear infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to assess the chemical composition of fresh honey samples. Samples (n = 110) from different locations across Uruguay were scanned in transreflectance (0.2 mm path—length) in a NIRS 6500 monochromator in both the visible and near infrared region (400–2500 nm). Prediction equations were developed using modified partial least squares and cross validation was applied to avoid overfitting. Calibrations for water content (g kg−1), pH, electrical conductivity (mS/cm), colour (mm Pfund) and hydroxymethylfurfural (mg kg−1) yielded a coefficient of determination in calibration (R2CAL) and standard error in cross validation of 0.96 (SECV: 31); 0.88 (SECV: 0.21); 0.94 (SECV: 0.07); 0.98 (SECV: 4.7) and 0.67 (SECV: 3.9), respectively. It is concluded that NIRS is a useful method to evaluate chemical composition on fresh honey samples.