Microwave Dielectric and Reflection Analysis on Pure and Adulterated Trigona Honey and Honey Gold

Abstract

. Honey adulteration is common in the food industry as it provides a cheaper alternative for the user to con-sume honey. However, it has been abused by industry runners with unsavory practices. As a result, it leads to busi-ness fraudulency. Pure honey is very precious due to its powerful health-giving properties. It raises the attention of beekeepers, wholesalers, food manufacturers, retailers, and consumers because this issue has been sensationally reported in mass media. Enforcement of the law is initiated to mitigate the abuse and fraudulency. It also motivates scientists, technologists, and engineers to strive for an effective solution. The microwave sensing method is well known in agricultural products and food. Hence, dielectric and reflection responses are explored to study the potential of the development of an instrumentation system for gaug-ing edible honey. In this work, the dielectric and reflection measurement was conducted using Agilent E8362B PNA Network Analyzer in conjunction with Agilent 85070E Performance Probe from 0.5 GHz to 4.5 GHz. Dielectric and reflection measurements were conducted to investigate dielectric behavior and mismatch impedance due to water and sucrose content in honey. It can be noticed that the dielectric constant, ε ', decreases as frequency increases. In the meantime, ε ' decreases with the decrement of water and the increment of sucrose content for Honey Gold and Trigona Honey. Meanwhile, for water adulterated Honey Gold and Trigona Honey, the loss factor, ε " decreases when frequencies increase. In addition, ε " decreases when the water content is < 36% and < 43% for Honey Gold and Trigona Honey, respectively. It can be found that at 1 GHz to 4 GHz, ε " increases when sucrose content increases which is applicable for Honey Gold and Trigona Honey. In reflection measurement, the magnitude of reflection coefficient, | Γ | decreases when frequency increases for all percentage of water and sucrose content for both kinds of honey. Withal, phase, – φ increases as frequency increases for water adulterated honey. – φ varies insignificantly when sucrose content increases for sucrose adulterated honey.