Development of non conventional system for HMF detection in Indian honey Instrumentation systems

Apiculture is a growing industry in many parts of India, as honey is a popular sweetener throughout the world. Recent Indian regulations have set new quality requirements for honey. 5, HydroMethylFurfural (HMF), which is one of the dominant VOC in honey, required in quality determination. The methods used for detection of volatile organic compounds which indicates the quality of Indian honey are generally determined by analytical instrumental methods that will be able to differentiate one compound from another. Gas Chromatographs- Mass spectrometers equipped with headspace analyzer and High performance Liquid Chromatography are the common analytical methods. These are time-consuming, complex, expensive and requires expert analysts. In this paper a new approach towards quality detection in Indian honey using gas sensor is discussed. The developed system minimizes the time of analysis and the size of instrument. The system is developed as a user-friendly system which can be used by a common beekeeper for quality detection.