Authenticity of Honey: Characterization, Bioactivities and Sensorial Properties Series II

Honey is a food product globally appreciated by consumers due to its extremely re- duced processing requirements and its nutritional properties. The characteristics of honey are defined based on its sugar profile, mineral elements, quality parameters, bioactive compounds, antioxidants, antimicrobial properties, sensorial attributes, and palynological profile. The particularities of honey composition are attributed to its botanical and geo- graphical origin. However, in some honey types, the identification of these physicochemical and sensory characteristics related to botanical origin remains scarce. Currently, the meth- ods for confirming honey floral origins are limited and some require improvements. The lack of specific legislation for each type of honey based on precise results extracted from palynological methods, chromatographic or spectroscopic techniques, or sensory analyses highlights the need for the scientific community to continue working on the transfer to the beekeeping sector. Therefore, there is demand from the beekeeping sector and con- sumers to authenticate honey linked to specific botanical origins. The success of combining physicochemical, palynological, and sensory data with chemometric treatment using vari- ous clustering and classification algorithms to discriminate the origin of honey has been revealed in some of the documents published. For this reason, knowledge regarding the physicochemical, sensorial, and palynological characteristics of honey continues to be in high demand.