Authentication of the Botanical and Geographical Origin of Honey by Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy

The potential of Fourier transform mid-infrared spectroscopy (FT-MIR) using an attenuated total reflectance (ATR) cell was evaluated for the authentication of 11 unifloral (acacia, alpine rose, chestnut, dandelion, heather, lime, rape, fir honeydew, metcalfa honeydew, oak honeydew) and polyfloral honey types (n = 411 samples) previously classified with traditional methods such as chemical, pollen, and sensory analysis. Chemometric evaluation of the spectra was carried out by applying principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis, the error rates of the discriminant models being calculated by using Bayes' theorem. The error rates ranged from