Honey is a complex matrix which contains at least 200 compounds among volatile, semi-volatile, and non-volatile compounds, being also a supersaturated solution of sugars mainly composed of glucose and fructose (65–80% of total soluble solids). Therefore, honey authentication is a complex topic and requires an integrated experimental workflow that ideally should involve a carefully selection of the most appropriate sample processing protocols, instrumental methods, reliable chemometric tools, and unambiguous metabolite identification (X.-H. Zhang, Qing, et al., 2021). Sample preparation and related extraction techniques is a critical step which often directly impacts the quality of analytical results and the duration of experiments. Most importantly, instrumental analysis is at the core of honey quality control. The use of emerging technologies in honey quality determination enables more accurate, fast, reliable and convenient results. In this context, chromatography, spectroscopy, electrochemistry, biosensing and other technologies have been widely applied in honey authenticity determination, such as identification and quantification of different adulterants in high-quality honey, geographical and botanical classification of honeys, and identification of unripe honey, etc. Moreover, chemometric approaches can enable mining significant information from complex data array, thus providing a novel research strategy for determining honey authenticity. Thus, improving sample extraction techniques, instrumental analyses, and more robust chemometric approaches will allow a more comprehensive analysis of honey authenticity.
