Everybody probably knows that isotope testing can expose synthetic whiskeys, tequilas, vodkas, etc. But I didn’t know that it could flag adulterated honeys and expose fishing competition fraud. (The latter is through analysis of the fish otoliths. Brilliant!)
I’ve long been fascinated by the C3, C4, and CAM photosynthesis plant types. But it hadn’t occurred to me that the carbon isotopes could thereby flag C4 plant adulteration products (e.g., cheap sugar from the C4 sugarcane plant) in a C3 type plant’s honey (e.g., clover, alfalfa, buckwheat, canola, etc.) Also brilliant.
One of my business is supplying honey to the grocery industry. The carbon 14 test saved our business as one of our distributors quit years ago started substituting corn syrup for honey and competing with us at a price below our costs. The carbon 14 test was new many years ago and my brother and I could tell from taste that the honey was not real but we needed the carbon 14 test to prove the fraud and save our business.
