The Quality of the Processed Honey

The honey is a Natural product produced by a honey bee (Apis mellifera). Indeed, honey bee collects plant nectars and secretions of plant different parts by combining them with own substances and decreasing the water content. The obtained mixture is then matured to honey by storing in the honeycomb. The honey has important nutritional value as it contains sugars, amino acids, lipid, vitamins, phenolic compounds as well as minerals. These last decades, the honey is widely used in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. The honey is very important in the food industry, as it can be processed into dried honey, dried honey-starch milk powder-honey mixture and tablet honey with a wide range of usages. In order to reduce the water content of honey, different drying techniques including tunnel drying, vacuum drying, microwave vacuum drying, spray drying and crystallization are usually applied. However, the quality properties of the honey may change during processing and storage due to overheating. The quality evaluation of honey and honey-based products is performed based on criteria such moisture content, electrical conductivity, ash content, proline content, reducing and non-reducing sugars, free acidity, diastase activity as well as hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). HMF is generated through the reaction occurring between reducing sugars and amino acids during the overheating of honey. For many food products, the quantity of HMF is used to prevent the application of excessive temperature. It is also used as an indicator during the storage of many products. The increase of the value of HMF in honey depends on both the high-temperature applications during the processing of honey and the storage conditions such as temperature and time which induces the color browning, changes in taste and smell and causes loss of the nutrients. Furthemore, the studies have revealed that HMF and its derivatives encompassing 5-chloromethyfurfural and 5-sulfoxymethylfurfural could be responsible for cytotoxic, genotoxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic effects causing public health problems. It has been reported that the heat treatment applied to the honey might prevent fermentation and crystallization increasing the storage period as well as the marketing quality. However, high and long-term heating process together with storage temperature and duration lead to inactivation of diastase enzyme which is important for the digestion of honey, decrease the nutritional value and induce changes in taste, aroma and color. Another important quality criterion in processed honey is the number of diastases. The number of diastases is adversely affected by temperature. More the temperature increases more the number of diastases decrease. This article discusses the quality criteria of honey and honey-based products.

کلیدواژه ها:

Honey ، HMF ، Diastazes