Austria trials DNA testing to uncover honey fraud

Voels, Austria: At a laboratory in Austria s mountainous Tyrol province, scientists are DNA testing about 100 honey samples a month to learn about the...

Voels, Austria: 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.