(ANSA-AFP) - VÖLS, 27 APR - 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. 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."
jza/kym/rlp/rjm
/ (ANSA-AFP).
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