Bee or not to be? Is your honey authentic?

In this Webinar Thomas Spengler will explain the importance of protecting the beekeepers and the bees, as many food products we eat depend on pollination by the bees. Beekeepers are suffering from adulteration in many countries, and it is a real threat to their existence and the food security. Also, consumers are denied the health benefits, which is only given when honey is pure and is produced completely by the bees.

Martin Linkogel from Quality Services International Laboratory will talk about the application of H-NMR and the Honey Profiling 3.1 Method in daily routine for authenticity and quality analysis of honey.

Key Learning Topics

• The various modes of adulteration on honey and the need for advanced for multi marker and non-targeted techniques to tackle honey fraud, ensure supply chain integrity and protect beekeepers, packers and consumers.

• Description of NMR as a powerful technique for the analysis of food products.

• The use of NMR for verification of the declared geographical origin and botanical variety.

• How QSI uses H-NMR and the Bruker Honey Profiling Method 3.1 to universally and efficiently tackle unknown foreign sugar syrups in honey via the targeted detection of sugar syrup markets and non-targeted via dilution effects in the spectra.

• Effective syrup detection (C3 and C4 sugars) in routine quality control: exemplary result comparison for Honey Authenticity Triple-Screening by NMR Bruker, HRMS and LC-IRMS.

• Comparability of NMR Bruker results and judgement between different labs in the view of QSI as quality control lab.

What to Expect

• Insight into the Honey-Profiling method and the new features of version 3.1

• Understanding of the unique advantages of the method over other analytical methods.

Presenter: Thomas Spengler (Director Market Management Food Feed Beverages & Head of Lean Customer Development, AIC Division, Bruker BioSpin GmbH)

Thomas holds a master's degree from Technical University Munich in food engineering and he is in charge of the Food, Feed & Beverage markets. His main focus is to support the business growth, identify new markets and segments and translate the voice of the customers into new solutions which address their needs.

Presenter: Martin Linkogel (Authorized Representative of General Management and Business Unit Manager Bee Products, Quality Services International GmbH, QSI Bremen, Germany)

Martin Linkogel is Certified Food Chemist (University of Hamburg, Germany, 1999) and has more than 23 years professional experience in instrumental analytical chemistry in the food and pharma industry. Since 2007 he focusses on all different aspects of the quality control of honey and bee products, from honey authenticity testing to residues of veterinary drugs.

After working as head of the laboratory at Applica/Intertek (Bremen) for nearly 10 years, he joined QSI Bremen in 2017 and manages the honey business unit including the development and harmonization of test methods, especially in the field of authenticity testing. He technically advises customers in setting up efficient, risk-based quality control strategies including the application of the most sophisticated test methods like NMR, HRMS, LC-MS/MS and LC-IRMS.

QSI Bremen is a leading independent quality control laboratory working as reliable partner for the customers worldwide. QSI Bremen is full member of the Bruker NMR Honey ProfilingTM consortium since the beginning and significantly contributed to the establishment of the NMR Bruker database.