Vol. 11, Special Issue 7 (2022)

Author(s):
Meena Thakur, Neha Gupta, Diksha Devi, Mangla Ram Bajiya, Ruchi Sharma and Deeksha Sharma

Abstract:
Honey is a natural sweet substance produced by honeybees using nectar. It is known to be an easily digestible food stuff containing a range of nutritionally important elements viz., saccharides, organic acids, amino acids, minerals, vitamins, aromatic substances, colour etc. From the ancient times, honey has been used as a natural sweetener as well as a healing agent. Presently, the demand of honey has also been increasing from years to years. With the increasing demand, the focus of beekeepers are towards the production of more and more honey of \good quality. In India, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) have specified the standards for quality parameters of honey. The quality of honey is mostly related to its physico-chemical characteristics viz., colour, moisture content, sugars, fructose, glucose and acidity, pH, enzymes activities, hydroxyl methyl furfural (HMF) content and electrical conductivity. These physicochemical properties of honey are mainly dependent on the geographical region, honeybee species, flower type, weather conditions, processing conditions, packaging and storage period. This review summarizes the literature about variations in physico-chemical characteristics of honey as influenced by external parameters.