Quality Assessment of Raw Honey Issued from Eastern Romania

Aida Albu,Gherasim Nacu,Ioan Mircea Pop,Cristina-Gabriela Radu-Rusu,Gabriela Frunza

doi:10.3390/agriculture11030247

Abstract

Romania is known among the main European honey producers, due to the variety of landforms as well as the diversity of the flora. Thirty-four honey samples of the acacia, linden and multifloral types, produced in eastern Romania and collected during 2013–2018, were physico-chemically analyzed using methods provided by the national and EU standards. The results of water-insoluble solids, color and refractive index were found to be 0.023–0.131%, 0.3–76.4 mm Pfund and 1.485–1.499, respectively. The moisture content ranged between 15.20% and 20.77%, solid substances content ranged between 79.23% and 84.80% and total soluble substances content ranged between 77.83 °Brix and 83.26 °Brix. The obtained values of specific gravity were from 1.414 to 1.450 g/cm3, pH ranged from 3.673 to 5.503 and free acidity ranged between 2.4 meq and 50 meq kg−1. The ash content and the electrical conductivity varied between 0.030 and 0.543% and 130 and 679 µS cm−1, respectively. Pearsonʹs correlation analysis showed an intense association of the ash content with electrical conductivity (r = 0.81). Our findings reveal the qualitative level of Romanian honey and the variation in quality parameters due to factors such as geographical region, climatic conditions, botanical origin and handling or storage conditions.

Highlights

Academic Editors: Gianluca Caruso, László Baranyai and Vasile StoleruReceived: 31 January 2021Accepted: 3 March 2021Published: 14 March 2021Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Honey is known and recognized as a wholesome food consumed due to its extraordinary composition, in terms of nutritional and therapeutic features [1,2]
All values of electrical conductivity measured in our study revealed that samples originated from blossom honey and the value of this parameter, closely related to organic acids and to mineral salts, is an indicator which contributes to quality
Among all analyzed samples from eastern Romania, 79.42% were in accordance with the quality regulations for honey as a commercial product

Summary

Introduction

Academic Editors: Gianluca Caruso, László Baranyai and Vasile StoleruReceived: 31 January 2021Accepted: 3 March 2021Published: 14 March 2021Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Honey is known and recognized as a wholesome food consumed due to its extraordinary composition, in terms of nutritional and therapeutic features [1,2]. Romania has an ancient tradition of beekeeping and now is one of the most important honey producers in Europe, due to the variety of landforms as well as the diverse and very rich flora. In the Romanian flora, there is a series of species of honey plants that stand out through a high honey production. This country has potential to offer sufficient and variate botanical resources to the indigenous bees (Apis mellifera carpatica) in order to obtain a wide panel of unifloral and multifloral honeys, such as the linden (Tilia tomentosa) type, the acacia sort (Robinia pseudoacacia), the sunflower variety (Helianthus anuus) and, the multifloral type (usually from spring–summer meadows and grasslands).

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