Identification of acacia honey treated with macroporous adsorption resins using HPLC-ECD and chemometrics.

• Qualitative and quantitative analysis of phenolic acids in honey was achieved using HPLC-ECD. • Contents of phenolic acids were decreased after treatment with resins. • Raw honey could be distinguished from resins-treated honey based on chromatographic peak areas. • HPLC-ECD allied chemometrics can be applied for quality control of honey. The adulteration of honey is generally a safety and quality concern for consumers and the industry as a whole. Resin technologies allow harmful substances to enter honey, creating substandard honey, which can enter the market. Thus, it is necessary to identify such illegal products quickly and easily. In this study, HPLC-ECD combined with chemometrics was used to identify raw acacia honey that had been treated with macroporous adsorption resins. The chromatography fingerprints of 46 honey samples were established, and principal component analysis (PCA) and the OPLS-DA identified that differences in some of the chromatographic peaks could be used to distinguish raw from resins-treated raw honeys. 100% correct classification was achieved with test samples, based on the chromatographic peaks identified. These results show that HPLC-ECD, combined with chemometric methods, can identify correctly resins-treated honey and can be applied for the quality control of honey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]