Assessment of honey quality from the area of Rtanj mountains

Abstract

Honey is a natural product that contains more than 200 different compounds and consists mainly of sugar, water, and other components such as organic acids, proteins (enzymes), vitamins, minerals, and phenolic compounds. As honey is food consumed all over the planet, certain standards and norms are needed that guarantee its identity and quality to be safely consumed by consumers. The limited availability and relatively high price of this natural product are good reasons to counterfeit honey. Therefore, determining the parameters of honey quality is extremely important from identifying markers that confirm its authenticity. The quality of honey is determined based on its physical and chemical characteristics, the most important of which are water content, pH value, acidity, electrical conductivity, ash content, sucrose content, reducing sugars, and HMF content. The aim of this work was to determine the quality parameters (water content, pH, total acidity, and electrical conductivity) of meadow honey samples from the mountain Rtanj, collected in 2019. Based on the obtained results of certain parameters of honey quality, which ranged from: water content (13.6 – 18.6%), pH value (3.4 – 5.3), total acidity (23.2 – 47.7 mmol/kg), and electrical conductivity (0.2 – 1.3 mS/cm), it can be concluded that all samples were in accordance with the prescribed national and EU regulations, except in the case of electrical conductivity, where four samples of honey observed value greater than 0.8 mS/cm prescribed by regulations. The increased electrical conductivity value can be explained by the fact that samples were collected at different localities and that nectar honey was mixed with honeydew, which is characteristic of the forest area.