Honey Geographical Origin Characterization and Authentication Based on Spectrophotometric Assays, Physicochemical Parameters, and LC-MS/MS Polyphenolic Profiling

Honey is a widely consumed natural sweetener produced by honeybees from the nectar of plants, secretions of living parts of plants, or insect excretions. Its high value is due to its nutritional value and multiple benefits to human health. However, due to the diversity in geographical origins, the properties of honey can vary depending on the region of production, leading to discrepancies in honey pricing. Therefore, it is essential to examine these variations by analyzing several parameters in honey from diverse regions. In this work, honeys from eight countries were characterized by measuring several physicochemical parameters and spectrophotometric assays aiming at geographical origin authentication. In addition, the polyphenolic profile of the samples was obtained by LC-LRMS. An acceptable discrimination of the samples was obtained when considering all variables altogether, with classification errors lower than 31.9%.