Exploring the chemical profile of Greek honey varieties via Liquid Chromatography coupled to Trapped Ion Mobility Spectrometry and High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry: from metabolomic fingerprint to varietal discrimination

In the present study, trapped ion mobility spectrometry (TIMS) coupled to liquid chromatography (LC) and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) was employed for the first time to determine the metabolomic composition of Greek honey. A total of 282 samples from 13 different botanical origins were analyzed, and 38 compounds were identified and quantified following target screening, like chrysin, hesperetin and pinobanksin. The application of suspect screening and the development of a novel semi-quantitative model expanded the comprehensive quantitative chemical characterization with 53 additional compounds, such as astragalin, dehydrovomifoliol and methyl syringate. A developed XGBoost classifier model, with 100 % classification in the validation set and 89 % in the test set, enabled the extraction of key authenticity markers, such as gallic acid and taxifolin for oak and pine varieties, respectively. The findings of this study provide a comprehensive investigation into honey's chemical composition, contributing to its authenticity assessment and accurate labelling.