Feasibility Study for the Development of a Honey-Reference Material

This paper reports a feasibility study for the development of a Honey -Reference Material (RM). Tests on the possibility to prepare the RM in different physical forms (TQ - liquid, lyophilized powder, pellets of lyophilized honey, encapsulated liquid honey) were carried out on an homogeneous batch of polyfloral honey. The analytical methods to characterize the RM for its elemental profile by TXRF, ICP-AES and ICPMS were developed, employing honey samples of different botanical origin (chestnut, black locust and polyfloral) collected in 20 different Italian Regions. Preliminary results show the feasibility to prepare a Honey -RM to be certified for the elemental profile referred both to nutritional elements and contaminants, as well as to trace elements to be used for the definition of characteristic fingerprints linked to the territorial/botanical product origin. Also the preparation of Honey -RMs in pellet form or encapsulated to be employed as Single Use -RMs turned out to be really feasible.