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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Honey is a food widely consumed worldwide and much appreciated for its nutritional, organoleptic and health
properties. However, it is also considered one of the food products most prone to be adulterated in the EU. Up until
now, honey authenticity addressed mainly the issue of sugars addition and botanical origin. Still, increased attention
has recently been paid to honey entomological origin as it also relates to its geographical origin since honeybees
carrying mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of distinct ancestries can be found across Europe. While in Portugal mtDNA
of the autochthonous subspecies Apis mellifera iberiensis belongs to the African (A) lineage, in the northeastern
part of Iberia African mitotypes are replaced by mitotypes of western European (M-lineage) ancestry. The native
distribution of the M-lineage A. m. mellifera expands from the Pyrenees to Scandinavia and from the British Isles to
the Ural Mountains while the C-lineage A. m. ligustica and A. m. carnica subspecies are naturally found in the
Apennine and Balkan peninsulas, respectively [1]. Also, certain honeys holding the protected designation of origin
(PDO) label should be produced by autochthonous A. mellifera subspecies, as mentioned in their EU geographical
indications register.
Description
Keywords
Honey
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Honrado, Mónica; Quaresma, Andreia; Lopes, Ana R.; Pinto, M. Alice; Henriques, Dora; Amaral, Joana S. (2021). DNA-based methods as a powerful tool for the entomological authentication of honey. In Book of Abstracts of the XXI EuroFoodChem Congress. Online
Publisher
Sociedade Portuguesa de Química