A new dewatering technique for stingless bees honey

Ahmad Syazwan Ramli,Shaharin A Sulaiman,Firdaus Basrawi,Thamir Khalil Ibrahim,Zulkifli Mustafa,Mohd Hazwan Bin Yusof,Daing Mohamad Nafiz Daing Idris,H Sakidin,M.H Yusof,N Sa'Ad,S.A Abdul Karim,D Ling Chuan Ching

doi:10.1051/matecconf/201713103014

Abstract

One of the problems faced in stingless bee honey storage is spoilage by the fermentation process occurs in honey due to its high water content. There are a few techniques available currently, but they are time consuming and there is excessive heat involved in the process. The temperature of the process must be kept low because excessive heat can deteriorate nutrition value and biochemical content in honey. Hence, a new method of honey dewatering was developed using a Low Temperature Vacuum Drying (LTVD) with induced nucleation technique. The objective of this research is to investigate the performance of a LTVD with induced nucleation to reduce the water content in honey. First, the honey was placed in a pressure vessel, and then air was removed. Then, the honey was slightly heated at 30 oC and the water content before and after the experiment was measured by a refractometer. The steps were repeated until the water content reached below 20%. It was found that the LTVD method improved the water removal rate significantly with an average of 0.15% of water content per minute. That is 3 times much faster than the conventional method of low temperature heating by Tabouret. Higher temperature during dewatering process improved the dewatering rate significantly. It can be concluded that LTVD is a promising option in tackling the high water content in stingless bee honey issue.

Highlights

Honey is a very sweet flavour natural liquid made by bees from nectar which is taken from flowers or from secretions of living parts from plants [1]
The water content in honey especially in stingless bee honey in general has become a major issue since the high water content promotes microbial activities that causes fermentation process to occur in honey as reported by Stephen (1946)[6]
Turhan et al (2008) stated that excessive heating may cause crystallization which will decrease the quality of the honey as well [8]

Summary

Introduction

Honey is a very sweet flavour natural liquid made by bees from nectar which is taken from flowers or from secretions of living parts from plants [1]. According to Marinus (2006), honey from stingless bee in Trinidad for example has a very high water content which can reach up to 42% [5]. The water content in honey especially in stingless bee honey in general has become a major issue since the high water content promotes microbial activities that causes fermentation process to occur in honey as reported by Stephen (1946)[6]. Turhan et al (2008) stated that excessive heating may cause crystallization which will decrease the quality of the honey as well [8]. It was found by Kretavičius et al (2010) that heating the honey lower than 50oC will not damage the enzyme activity in the honey [9]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion