Honey authentication using intrinsic DNA markers and metabolic fingerprint

蜂蜜是一种完全天然的产品，几千年来一直存在于人类的饮食中。蜂蜜在英国的受欢迎程度不断提高，但国内生产只能满足约14%的需求。因此，每年进口40万吨蜂蜜（欧盟统计局，2015年）。由于口味和健康益处，对优质单花蜂蜜的需求正在增加（年增长率为5-15%）。蜂蜜缓解上呼吸道感染症状的证据进一步支持了这一观点。英国养蜂人正在努力生产自己的单花蜂蜜，其中石南花蜂蜜是最重要的。石楠蜂蜜含有丰富的植物化学成分，在健康益处方面被认为可与新西兰的麦卢卡蜂蜜相媲美。然而，对石南蜂蜜的化学成分和生物活性的研究很少。此外，石楠蜜的质量特征没有很好的定义，使认证变得困难。确定植物来源的主要方法是花粉计数（melisopalinology），这需要高度专业化，并不总是可靠的。全球蜂蜜行业面临的另一个主要挑战是掺假。在欧盟（2013年）公布的一份名单中，蜂蜜是十大最具掺假风险的食品之一。目前，对蜂蜜的真伪检测没有单一的方法，大多数检测耗时且昂贵。包括光谱法在内的现代技术已成功地应用于国外蜂蜜的鉴定研究。克兰菲尔德大学生物信息学小组获得的初步结果（未发表）也强调了传感器技术在蜂蜜表征方面的巨大潜力。新出现的技术也集中在发现蜂蜜中的代谢和/或DNA生物标志物上，分别使用HPLC和RT-PCR等技术用于蜂蜜的植物学特征和掺假检测[3]。这种方法在麦卢卡蜂蜜的案例中取得了可喜的结果。先前的研究已经在其他欧洲国家提出了石楠花蜂蜜的一些生物标记物，如脱落酸、鞣花酸和异膦酸5，但这些标记物并不是植物源所特有的，在不同的研究中往往存在差异。需要进一步的研究来提供一个可靠的方法来验证石楠蜜。假设：我们假设蜂蜜和花源中的内在DNA标记和代谢指纹/生物标记可以与人工智能配对，以开发同时识别英国石南花蜂蜜植物来源和掺假检测的新方法。

Honey is a completely natural product included in human diet for thousands of years. Honey's popularity in the UK is increasing continuously but domestic production covers ~14% of demand. Therefore, c40,000 tonnes of honey are imported annually (Eurostat, 2015). Demand for premium monofloral honeys is increasing (annual growth rate 5-15%) driven by flavour and perceived health benefits. Evidence on the effectiveness of honey for relieving symptoms in upper respiratory tract infections further support this view[1]. UK bee farmers are striving to produce their own monofloral honeys, with heather honey being the most important. Heather honey has rich phytochemical content and is considered comparable to New Zealand's manuka honey in terms of health benefits. However, research into the chemical composition and bioactivity of heather honey is sparse. In addition, the quality characteristics of heather honey are not well defined, making authentication difficult. The main method for botanical origin determination is melissopalinology (pollen counting) which requires high specialisation and is not always reliable[2].Another major challenge facing the honey industry worldwide is adulteration. Honey was among the top ten foods most at risk of adulteration in a list published by the EU (2013). At present, there is no single method for authenticity testing for honey and the majority of the tests are time-consuming and expensive.Modern techniques including spectroscopic methods have been applied successfully on honey authentication studies in other countries[3]. Preliminary results acquired from the Bioinformatics group at Cranfield University (unpublished) have also highlighted the promising potential of sensor technology, for honey characterisation. Newly emerging techniques have also focused on the discovery of metabolic and/or DNA biomarkers in honey using techniques such as HPLC and RT-PCR respectively for the botanical characterisation of honey and adulteration detection[3]. This approach has yielded promising results in the case of manuka honey[4]. Previous studies have proposed some biomarkers for heather honey in other European countries, such as abscisic acid, ellagic acid and isophorone5, but these markers are not unique to the botanical source and tend to differ between studies. Further research is required to deliver a reliable method for heather honey authentication. Hypothesis: We hypothesise that intrinsic DNA markers and metabolic fingerprint/biomarkers in honey and floral sources can be paired with artificial intelligence to develop novel methods for simultaneous botanical origin identification and adulteration detection in UK heather honey.