A Review on Effect of Adulteration on Honey Properties

Abstract

Honey is natural complex food product produced by bees from nectar of plants. It is a unique sweetening agent that can be used by humans without processing, Honey adulteration is a complex problem in the world in general and in our country in particular, which has a significant economic impact; it can be occurred by the addition of different cheap foreign materials. Adulteration or the addition of foreign substances to honey are such as; sugar, molasses, water, banana, wheat and maize syrup or flour in Ethiopia. Being a natural product, the composition of honey is highly variable because of adulteration. Hence adulteration of honey often takes place alter physicochemical and rheology of honey, resulting in reduction in its nutritive and medicinal value, the methods of discrimination of adulterant, accurate quantification of the adulterants, must have been employed for producing high quality of honey and free from any foreign addition.