An electronic technique to determine the adulteration in honey

Honey adulteration has evolved from the basic addition of cane sugar and water to specially produced syrups. The analysis of the honey samples is based on its dielectric properties. A parallel plate capacitor is made use for testing honey with different percentage of adulteration, kept as dielectric and measuring its capacitance. The variation of the capacitance is found to be significant with the adulteration of honey. The variable capacitor is connected in the circuit of a relaxation oscillator. The change in capacitance modulates the output frequency of the oscillator. The frequency of the oscillator is measured using the digital counter. The results of this method indicate that the method is quite simple, quick and hence, suitable for large scale industrial monitoring of honey samples.