Food Authenticity (EP 7)

Food Authenticity Podcast Ep7 - Lea Heintz, Thomas Spengler

Thomas and Lea share their considerable expertise in the use of NMR to verify the authenticity of honey and detect any adulteration. They highlight how this tool can be used for quality control, to detect and quantify compounds of interest and provide valuable insight into any treatments or processes to which honey has been subjected before being sold.

The NMR FoodScreener represents a powerful tool in the profiling and characterization of honey, not just in detecting and helping prevent adulteration but also in ensuring the quality and consistency of premium honey products are maintained throughout the supply chain.

Thomas and Lea also outline the benefits and advantages of the FoodScreener platform over traditional approaches, and discuss its role in developing standardized methods and internationally accessible databases of authentic honey profiles, which are at the forefront of the global response to honey fraud.

The long-term economic and environmental impact of honey fraud is widely recognized, with trade bodies, honey producers, and governments worldwide working to address this pressing issue via a combination of regulatory frameworks, analytical solutions, and collaborative approaches.

This podcast features two experts in honey fraud from Bruker Biospin - Thomas Spengler, the Director of Market Management of Food Feed Beverages, and Lea Heintz, the Product Manager for the company’s NMR FoodScreener platform.

Honey fraud can take a number of forms, ranging from the addition of sugar and syrups to artificially sweeten the product, to disguising the product’s country of origin via transshipping and mislabeling to avoid specific import taxes or regulatory checks.

As well as the motivations for and methods of honey fraud, our guests provide detailed insight into the tools and technologies available to help combat this global issue.