Carbohydrate Composition of High-Fructose Corn Syrups (HFCS) Used for Bee Feeding: Effect on Honey Composition

Abstract

In this study, the carbohydrate composition of high-fructose corn syrups (HFCS) from commercial manufacturers as well as from beekeepers was characterized by GC-MS. Sucrose syrups (SS) were also included in this work for comparison. Fructosyl-fructoses and some unknown carbohydrates, which could correspond to fructosyl-glucoses, have been detected in HFCS for the first time, whereas SS were mainly characterized by the high contents of sucrose. Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) content of samples supplied by beekeepers was much more variable; the mean level of HMF was 64.61 ppm (+/-16.92 ppm, 95% CI ranging from 26.91 to 102.31 ppm). Syrups were used to feed caged bees and the resulting honeys produced were analyzed in order to determine their influence in carbohydrate composition. Fructosyl-fructoses were mainly detected in honeys from bees fed with HFCS, but not from those honeys coming from free-flying bees or bees fed with SS.

Endüstriyel Ticari Şekerlerin Farklı Şerbet Seviyeleri İle Beslenen Bal Arısı (Apis mellifera L.) Kolonilerinden Üretilmiş Katkılı ve Saf Balların Biyokimyasal Özellikler Yönünden Karşılaştırılması

“…This might be resulted from high fructose content of the HFCS-85 compared to the other sugars (Table 1). This result was compatible with the result of Ruiz-Matute et al [7] who used HFCS-42, HFCS-55, HFCS-75, HFCS+SS and SS sugars for feeding the honey bees. In our study, the honeys taken from the 20 and 100 L/colony of HFCS-85 evaluated as fraudulent due to the fact that they showed significant deviations from standard values [2,30] .…”

“…PBH had no sucrose. Ozcan et al [33] and Ruiz-Matute et al [7] also found no sucrose in control honey. The source of sucrose in the pure honey, where sucrose was not used as a supplemental food in this group, is nectar [5,[32][33][34] .…”

“…A greater reduction in the invertase enzyme levels of honey from HFCS sugars might have resulted from the fact that they contain more fructose than other monosaccharide sugars used in the study. RuizMatute et al [7] reported that when the fructose proportion of the sugar increased, honey bees encounter difficulty to izomerize the sugar into fructose (39-40%) and glucose (28-30%) to a level that found in natural honey.…”

“…However, adulteration has been performed directly via the addition of commercial sugar syrups to the honey [5,6] or indirectly via overfeeding honey bee colonies with these commercial industrial sugars during the main nectar flow period [3,7,8] . These industrial sugars used for adulteration are produced from sugar beet and mainly maize starch by heat, enzyme or acid treatment producing a substance known as High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).…”

“…Many researchers reported that the use of excessive sugar with the intent of producing greater yields [5] adversely affected sugar content [3,5,7,9,10,16,17] , mineral matter content and proline content of the honey [3][4][5]18] . In addition, sugar origin (C 3 or C 4 ) used for bee feeding affected the honey carbon isotope ratio and C 4 % [5,8,12] .…”