Honey Adulterant Detection System Using Fiber Optics Sensors

Abstract

Honey's valued for nutrition and antioxidants, but adulteration, mainly sugar addition, reduces quality and nutritional value. In this chapter, a detection system for honey adulterated with sucrose syrup is reported using a sensor built with fiber optics. The sensor consists of the union of a segment of non-core multimode fiber (NC-MMF) joined at its ends to two segments of single-mode fiber (SMF). The principle of operation is that, when propagating an optical field in the device, a transmission peak appears at its output due to its filter-like response, the position of which depends on the effective refractive index of the medium surrounding the NC-MMF. Therefore, when different mixtures of adulterated honey are coated on the NC-MMF section, the peak wavelength changes according to the refractive index of the mixture. In this way, adulterated honey can be detected from the shift in wavelength of the transmission peak. The device was tested on a compliant commercial honey brand, exhibiting a linear response with a sensitivity of -0.5417 nm/% in the 1%-5% adulteration range.