Quality evaluation of honey

Abstract

For a long time, honey is valued for exceptional taste and beneficial effects on human health. Also, honey is special because it can be stored more than a year suitable for use without any further processing. The purpose of this work was to evaluate honey acidity and diastase activity changes over a 12 months’ storage period. For research was being used three different botany composition of honey collected in July, August and September in Farmer located in East part of Lithuania. The experiences have been done on fresh honey, and after storage 4 and 12 months. Acidity was determined by sample titration with sodium hydroxide until acid neutralization. Diastase activity was measured using a buffered solution of soluble starch, which fulfils the requirements of the method (Codex Alimentarius Commission, 1981). The averaged experiment results showed that during storage honey acidity increased. The average acidity of fresh honey in depending on botany composition was 11.6 mekv kg-1, after 4 months – 16.94 mekv kg-1 and after 12 months –17.6 mekv kg-1. Storage of honey under warm conditions should lead to reduced diastase activity, however, melting by the device resulted in different variations depending on the botanical species of honey. The average experiment results of enzyme activity showed that after 4 months’ honey storage it decreased 1.56 times, and after 12 months –2.26 times. In summary, it can be said that during storage honey quality changes and it’s getting worse, therefore honey should be consumed as fresh as possible.