Abstract
Natural foods have gained much attention as awareness of health issues has increased in recent years. In particular, honey has come into focus as a food rich in both minerals and amino acids, thereby resulting in an increased demand for the product. Over 90% of the honey distributed in Japan is produced abroad; however, factors such as concerns regarding food, consumer preference for authentic products, and confidence in the product have led to an increased demand for honey produced in Japan, and attention has been drawn by local brands. Honey has also come under the spotlight for its medical applications, and several medical institutions in the USA and Europe as well as Japan are using honey for the treatment of wounds. There are many types of honey, and stability and quality management are essential to maintain a certain degree of efficacy. It is therefore necessary to establish a technique to compare the place of production and type of honey. In this study, we combined analysis of trace elements in honey, which has been previously reported in this publication, with pollen analysis, an indicator of nectar source, and compared these two analytical methods to investigate the ability of each method to differentiate between types of honey. Target pollen content in pollen analysis was approximately 60% for lotus flower honey and approximately 20% for acacia honey. Discriminant analysis of the types of honey determined using pollen analysis established that highly accurate classification of type is possible at 75% for lotus flower honey and 96.4% for acacia honey.
