Geographical discrimination of honeys through the employment of sugar patterns and common chemical quality parameters

Sixty honey samples from six different production zones of the provinces of Salamanca, Zamora and Caceres (west Spain) were analyzed for 13 common legal physico-chemical parameters and 17 sugars in order to test for their geographical classification. Application of linear stepwise discriminant analysis to a number of variables made of a selection of analytical results and simple mathematical functions of them allowed, firstly, discrimination between honeys from these six zones and, secondly, discrimination between honeys from the three zones of the province of Salamanca. The eight most discriminant variables selected for the six zones were a combination of nine physicochemical parameters and sugars, with 85.00% of correctly classified samples; for the three zones of the province of Salamanca, regarded with special interest in our study, seven variables were selected (consisting of seven single physico-chemical parameters and sugars) with a result of 100.00% of correctly classified samples.