Determination of geographical and botanical origin of honey

The main purpose of the project is to establish a fundamental base of data by analyzing systematically collected samples of honey of different botanical and geographical origin. This base will enable the formation of guidelines for certificating the quality and the origin of Slovenian honey. Within the framework of the proposed project, we will determine elemental composition of honey, honey’s physico-chemical characteristics (electrolytic conductivity, pH value, free and total acidity, content of lactones, sugars, hydroximethylfurfural, diastase activity etc.) and basic isotopic parameters, such as an isotopic composition of bulk δ13C and an isotopic composition of carbon in honey proteins as an internal standard. Obtained results will be statistically processed. Several different methods will be used, such as discriminant analysis, method of general linear models and linear regression. The obtained results will be further evaluated with PCA, KANN and hierarchical grouping in order to determine the geographical origin and to investigate the influence of provenience on different honey variety. The project envisages also formation of the sample bank.