Methods for the determination of HMF in honey: a comparison

HMF (5-hydroxymethylfurfuraldehyde) is essential to evaluate the conformity of honey to the current legislation. Elevated concentrations of HMF in honey provide an indication of overheating, storage in poor conditions or age of the honey. Both the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Alinorm 01/25, 2000) and the European Union (Directive 110/2001) established that its concentration in honey usually should not exceed 80 or 40 mg/kg, respectively. The International Honey Commission recommends three methods for the determination of HMF: two spectrophotometric methods, determination after White and after Winkler and a HPLC method. These methods were recently tested by the International Honey Commission (1999). Aim of this research was to compare HMF values in unifloral honeys measured by the three methods. From our data, HPLC and White methods usually give similar values, except for eucalyptus honey; Winkler method gave for all honeys higher values than other two methods.