Quality Control of Honey and Bee Products

Abstract

As a natural product of a relatively high price, honey has been a target for adulteration for a long time. Addition of sweeteners, mis-description of botanical source of honey, high moisture content, or subsequent addition of water which can result in honey fermentation and spoilage and the use of excessive heat in honey processing for liquefaction or pasteurization are the major issues related to honey quality and authenticity. Interestingly, the majority of the production of honey takes place in developing countries, while the developed countries are the largest consumers but honey imported from these countries has a lower price than the locally produced honey, and is therefore prone to mislabelling because of economic reasons. This international trade is under tremendous pressure and the export of honey from these countries is facing surging issues related to its authenticity. Since then the honey quality issues have become imperative and critical. According to the defi nition in the FAO Codex Standard for honey (Anonymous 2001 ) and in the European honey standard (Council Directive 2001/110/EC) honey shall not contain any food ingredient other than honey itself nor shall any particular constituent be removed from it. Many methods are employed for analysis of honey. Among them, moisture content, electrical conductivity, optical rotation, and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) provide a good information value about honey quality for beekeepers and various stakeholders dealing with honey.

Occurrence of antibiotic residues in Apulian honey: potential risk of environmental pollution by antibiotics

“…Food safety is a priority to be pursued all over the world and the presence of chemical substances in food is a widespread problem. Antimicrobial drugs in honey are a serious health risk as they can cause toxic, allergic and hypersensitivity reactions (Reybroeck, 2014); in addition, they can promote the spread of resistant microbial strains (Wegener et al, 1999). Different studies have shown the presence of antibiotics in European and non-EU honey (Saridaki-Papakonstadinou et al, 2006;Baggio et al, 2009;Barrasso et al, 2018) and, in some cases, mixing with Chinese honeys has been thought to be the reason for the findings of streptomycin, tetracycline and chloramphenicol in European honey (Reybroeck, 2003).…”

A Melissopalynologic dynamics appraisal revealed the strategic foraging adaptation of the honeybees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus 1758) to the anthropogenic impacts in the Republic of Benin

“…Regarding the crop plants foraging, this will lead to a higher pesticide risk on the bees as most anthropogenic plants are intensively pesticides sprayed in the region [ 52 ]. This will also increase residues and hive product contamination risks in addition to the drastic direct or indirect pesticide impacts on the honey bee populations [ 70 , 71 ].…”

Data_Sheet_1.docx

“…Moisture, HMF (Hydroxymethyl furfural), free acid, diastase are the composition and quality criteria used routinely for the international honey trade (135,294). Knowledge of the physical or physicochemical properties of bee products is important for monitoring the quality of honey.…”