Study of Quality Factor (Q) obtained per electrical impedance to characterization and detection adulteration in honey

Abstract

The quality control of honey is very important for the food industry and for the final consumer. Honey has been constantly the target of adulteration, usually with the aim of illegally increasing profit. However, the analytical methods used sometimes are very complex and beyond time- consuming. The electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) appears as a good alternative to the traditional methods of analysis due to its practicality and low costs. In order to show the applicability of this tool in honey quality control analysis, in the present study, honey samples were purposefully adulterated with syrup to simulate adulteration conditions. Then, they were submitted to impedance analysis with frequency scanned from 10 Hz to 2 MHz, in order to obtain different spectral electrical parameters. The phase angle, the real part of the impedance and the quality factor (Q) were collected. The results available show that the Q has great potential for use, as it presents a linear correlation between the frequencies relative to the peaks of the Q as a function of concentration and adjustment model above 0.99. Therefore, it is proposed that an analytical methodology based on electrical impedance spectroscopy can be a powerful technique for quality control and detection of adulterants.