Assay of B Vitamins and other Water-soluble Vitamins in Honey

Honey is far from being a vitamin-rich food. Only low concentrations of water-soluble vitamins are normally present in honey. The amount of water-soluble vitamins in honey and their concentrations can be a strong indicator of the geographical origin and the freshness of the honey. Analytical methods used to determine vitamins until now were based on spectroscopic, chromatographic, titrimetric and microbiological approaches. Water-soluble vitamins in honey have been often determined using methods not specifically developed for this matrix. While data published in the literature are quite homogeneous regarding the amount of B group vitamins in honey, the reported concentration of vitamin C in honey varies widely over several orders of magnitude. It is possible that data relative to high concentrations in honey of vitamin C are affected by some bias. Only a proper validation of the whole analytical protocol offers guarantees on the reliability of the data produced.