Publications

Tutin is a natural plant toxin which is covered by a Ministry of Primary Industries food standard issued in early 2016.

In most honeys, the antimicrobial activity comes from the hydrogen peroxide content that is produced by the enzyme glucose oxidase (Mandal & Mandal, 2011). But with honeys like mānuka, we know there is another activity source that does not come from hydrogen peroxide. This activity is called non-peroxide activity (NPA).

For many years, Analytica Laboratories has been performing Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing to detect the levels of American foulbrood (AFB) spores and mānuka pollen DNA in honey. The basis of this test is rather simple; we extract, amplify, and quantify a section of DNA code in the honey sample that is specific to the analyte we are looking for. In this case it is the DNA of the AFB bacteria or the DNA of the mānuka flower’s pollen.

Analytica Laboratories (now part of ALS Global) is New Zealand’s leading honey testing laboratory. We have developed methods like the C4 Sugar Screening test and the 3-in-1 test that are now very commonly used by all New Zealand labs nowadays. In this article, I am going to give you a brief rundown on how we perform some of the common honey tests, to give you a better understanding of what your honey goes through once it arrives at our doors.

The inspiration for this article has come from a honey sample that has been stored at ambient temperature for almost eight years. This honey’s test results showed an HMF of almost 4000mg/kg and, if you’re curious, it had an almost barbecue sauce scent to it!

Microbiological testing can be performed on your honey for many reasons, but the main reason is to ensure the honey has been handled hygienically from the hive to the finished product.

A review of hundreds of honey samples tested between August 2017 and February 2018 provides an indication of the impact that the new MPI mānuka honey definition will have.

Composite testing is a popular and affordable way of confirming that tutin concentration in honey samples meets MPI requirements. We have reviewed results for all tutin composite samples tested at Analytica in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Eighty-seven percent of these samples had low results, meaning that all the individual samples in those composites were below 0.7 mg/kg of tutin. About 13% had composite results that required a re-test of individual samples.

C4 sugar analysis of honey is an internationally recognised way of testing whether the honey has been adulterated with other sugars.

It has become common to trade mānuka honey based on a forecast of its future grade and quality. However, simply using the maximum future grade of the honey may not be the best way of valuing honey today. Its current value will be affected by things like the cost of carrying the honey while it ‘grows’, the risk of the honey being damaged while it ‘grows’, and its ability to be packed into a product that can be sold in high-value overseas markets.