Periodical changes in quality parameters of honey during storage and processing

Abstract

The effect of storage upto 15 months on apiary honey with an increase in storage period upto 15 months resulted in an increase in the refractive index, pfund value, TRS, glucose, HMF and yeast and decrease in the moisture, pH and sucrose levels. The properties of honey changed with the advancement of storage. The honey when subjected to indirect heating at different temperatures revealed that moisture content of honey was reduced when heated beyond 50 0C. A slight variation in TRS content was also observed. In addition to that, the increasing trend in HMF content of honey with the increasing temperature was found. The observation on yeast population in honey exhibited significant growth during the storage. The pollen and yeast counts of processed and unprocessed honey were reduced significantly from 53,760.33 to 38,132.67 and 47,927.33 to 1734.33, respectively.