The Fort Worth Press - Austria trials DNA testing to uncover honey fraud

USD -
AED 3.672975
AFN 70.498872
ALL 87.850125
AMD 388.079699
ANG 1.789679
AOA 916.999547
ARS 1124.935024
AUD 1.54046
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.697557
BAM 1.760475
BBD 2.01821
BDT 121.44561
BGN 1.74424
BHD 0.376907
BIF 2936
BMD 1
BND 1.304667
BOB 6.906795
BRL 5.617296
BSD 0.999608
BTN 85.262414
BWP 13.645733
BYN 3.271208
BYR 19600
BZD 2.00784
CAD 1.390785
CDF 2871.000319
CHF 0.835415
CLF 0.024508
CLP 940.493978
CNY 7.20635
CNH 7.198635
COP 4211.75
CRC 507.95051
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 99.125042
CZK 22.172978
DJF 177.719994
DKK 6.63492
DOP 58.897745
DZD 133.17696
EGP 50.412015
ERN 15
ETB 133.131461
EUR 0.88953
FJD 2.257404
FKP 0.753148
GBP 0.74909
GEL 2.740331
GGP 0.753148
GHS 12.725014
GIP 0.753148
GMD 71.999524
GNF 8654.99957
GTQ 7.685314
GYD 209.123559
HKD 7.8007
HNL 25.770469
HRK 6.704098
HTG 130.691715
HUF 359.512948
IDR 16538.8
ILS 3.561605
IMP 0.753148
INR 85.327397
IQD 1310
IRR 42099.999426
ISK 129.607527
JEP 0.753148
JMD 159.24209
JOD 0.709402
JPY 146.137029
KES 129.250331
KGS 87.450285
KHR 4018.999937
KMF 440.499962
KPW 900.025486
KRW 1395.459739
KWD 0.30729
KYD 0.832966
KZT 508.08524
LAK 21619.999937
LBP 89549.999943
LKR 298.717314
LRD 199.624979
LSL 18.329777
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 5.514976
MAD 9.299562
MDL 17.472119
MGA 4485.000541
MKD 54.74912
MMK 2099.382878
MNT 3577.646594
MOP 8.02371
MRU 39.599353
MUR 46.150052
MVR 15.449605
MWK 1736.000123
MXN 19.35897
MYR 4.298022
MZN 63.909992
NAD 18.32983
NGN 1602.790603
NIO 36.775018
NOK 10.28677
NPR 136.415311
NZD 1.677726
OMR 0.385005
PAB 0.999577
PEN 3.66125
PGK 4.07275
PHP 55.782978
PKR 281.750307
PLN 3.776315
PYG 7982.465221
QAR 3.640497
RON 4.540305
RSD 105.514724
RUB 80.194272
RWF 1420
SAR 3.750567
SBD 8.36135
SCR 14.226593
SDG 600.497717
SEK 9.671045
SGD 1.297015
SHP 0.785843
SLE 22.749882
SLL 20969.500214
SOS 571.50348
SRD 36.494926
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.746686
SYP 13001.704189
SZL 18.330085
THB 33.232029
TJS 10.365266
TMT 3.505
TND 3.022495
TOP 2.342099
TRY 38.77137
TTD 6.783414
TWD 30.184503
TZS 2695.494781
UAH 41.541044
UGX 3658.179822
UYU 41.748053
UZS 12935.000039
VES 92.946016
VND 25940
VUV 120.127784
WST 2.788568
XAF 590.436285
XAG 0.030481
XAU 0.000309
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.734637
XOF 575.498432
XPF 107.149774
YER 244.449772
ZAR 18.21091
ZMK 9001.203875
ZMW 26.488498
ZWL 321.999592
  • CMSD

    -0.0300

    22.36

    -0.13%

  • GSK

    0.0600

    36.41

    +0.16%

  • CMSC

    0.0100

    22.07

    +0.05%

  • RBGPF

    0.8100

    63.81

    +1.27%

  • SCS

    -0.1300

    10.58

    -1.23%

  • NGG

    -0.1000

    67.43

    -0.15%

  • BTI

    -0.2450

    40.445

    -0.61%

  • RELX

    0.7500

    53.15

    +1.41%

  • RIO

    -0.0990

    62.171

    -0.16%

  • BCC

    -1.3050

    92.405

    -1.41%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0200

    10.68

    -0.19%

  • AZN

    -0.8400

    66.88

    -1.26%

  • JRI

    -0.0460

    12.834

    -0.36%

  • VOD

    -0.0100

    9.05

    -0.11%

  • BP

    -0.1950

    30.365

    -0.64%

  • BCE

    -0.6100

    21.37

    -2.85%

Austria trials DNA testing to uncover honey fraud
Austria trials DNA testing to uncover honey fraud / Photo: © AFP

Austria trials DNA testing to uncover honey fraud

At a laboratory in Austria's mountainous Tyrol province, scientists are DNA testing about 100 honey samples a month to learn about their composition -- and in some cases to determine whether they have been adulterated.

Text size:

With fake honey flooding markets, and only a few European laboratories running such analysis, the small Austrian company Sinsoma began offering the tests two years ago.

"It is really something new for the honey market," said Corinna Wallinger, head of sales at Sinsoma.

It is essential that technology "always moves forward -- just as the counterfeiters" do, she added.

Honey cannot have ingredients such as water or inexpensive sugar syrups -- which might boost its volume -- added to it, according to EU legislation.

But tests have shown that is common practice.

Between 2021 and 2022, 46 percent of the honey tested under an EU investigation as it entered the bloc was flagged as potentially adulterated, up from 14 percent in the 2015-17 period.

Of the suspicious consignments, 74 percent were of Chinese origin.

- Beekeepers' livelihoods threatened -

Seeking to better detect fraud, Austria's health and food safety agency (AGES) used DNA testing for the first time this year and is still evaluating the results.

European supermarket chain SPAR also ordered DNA tests for its honey.

The chain put its honeys -- taken off the shelves late last year in Austria for testing -- back after they passed DNA tests and another analysis.

Besides cheating consumers, fake honey threatens the livelihood of beekeepers, who struggle to compete with the far lower prices of imported honey -- often blended from various countries -- and are demanding more effective testing.

"We don't have a chance at all," said Matthias Kopetzky, owner of the Wiener Bezirksimkerei, which takes care of up to 350 hives in Vienna, as bees buzzed around him on a meadow overlooking the capital.

While the European Union is the world's top honey producer after China, it is also the second-biggest importer after the United States.

Most of the bloc's honey imports come from Ukraine, China and Argentina, according to EU data.

An EU directive adopted last year stipulates that honey labels from mid-2026 must detail the countries of origin, as opposed to merely referencing a "blend of EU and non-EU honeys".

Beekeepers like Kopetzky hope the new rule will raise consumer awareness.

Brussels also set up a group of experts, with a mandate until 2028, to "harmonise methods to detect adulteration in honey and trace the product back to the harvesting producer or importer".

- Rigorous process -

Austria's Sinsoma has specialised in DNA testing.

"Honey is full of DNA traces, of information from the environment where bees collected the nectar. Every honey has a unique DNA profile," Wallinger said.

When a honey sample lacks a wide range of DNA traces or for example contains a high proportion of DNA traces from rice or corn -- which bees do not frequent -- this indicates a honey is not genuine, she added.

Co-founded by Wallinger in 2018, Sinsoma now employs about a dozen people working in the small laboratory room and adjacent open office space in the quiet town of Voels near Innsbruck.

Sinsoma charges beekeepers 94 euros ($103) for a basic DNA test targeting plants -- about half of what a classic pollen test would normally cost, she said.

For the DNA profile, beekeepers also get a QR code which allows consumers to see exactly which plant species the bees making the honey have frequented, she said.

Experts warn the DNA method can detect certain types of fraud but not all, and that a rigorous process of validation is required to ensure trustworthy results.

Wallinger recognised the need for standardisation of the methods but said this will take time.

"It is always somewhat of an issue -- and this is also the case at the EU level," she said.

"If you always wait until you can use a standardised method to uncover a fake honey, then you will always be lagging behind what counterfeiters are doing."

L.Rodriguez--TFWP