FSSAI Reviews CSE Investigation on Honey Adulteration

On December 03, 2020, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s scientific opinion reviewed the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) investigation on adulteration in honey.

The technical team provided the following reviews the non-prescription of Trace Marker for Rice syrup (TMR) for detecting adulteration of rice syrup in honey. In fact, the Specific Marker for Rice syrup test (SMR) has already been made mandatory and is a more focused test to detect adulteration of rice syrup in honey, TMR was considered not necessary.

CSE has pointed out that FSSAI has issued instructions for checking adulteration of honey with golden syrup, invert sugar syrup, and rice syrup. CSE has opined that this is an erroneous order as companies are using fructose syrup to adulterate honey.

Moreover, the following points were addressed:

• Action is required to prevent adulteration from various sources, and hence this order is not erroneous, but is a part of our ongoing efforts to prevent adulteration of honey. As far as detection of fructose is concerned, the currently prescribed method EA – LC – IRMS is as sensitive as NMR, if not better, for detecting fruit origin sugars.
• The parameters related to isotropic ratio and foreign oligosaccharides are meant for detection of individual fruit sugars. The isotropic ratio and foreign oligosaccharides coupled with C3 and C4 sugar detection can easily determine fruit origin sugars.
• Based on CSE information, FSSAI will investigate and further await detailed report from CSE to analyze and draw conclusions about the protocols followed and suggest any improvements that are required in the test methodology for future.

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