Quality evaluation of polish honey: On‐line survey, sensory study, and consumer acceptance

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AbstractThe aim of this research is the evaluation of the sensory attributes of most‐favorable honey types to select honey with the best sensorial overall and the highest consumer acceptance. The on‐line questionnaire revealed that the group of 515 Polish citizens mostly consumed multiflorous (38.4% of respondents), linden (30.2%), and buckwheat (11.4%) honey. The material was multiflorous, linden and buckwheat honey, in total nine samples, purchased from Polish beekeepers. In the next step, the sensory panel determined sweet and honey‐like aromas as the characteristic descriptors. Acid, pungent, and bitter tastes appeared in the evaluation; however, they did not negatively affect the overall assessment. Honey differed significantly in density, from liquid multiflorous and linden honey to very thick buckwheat honey. Then, the highest overall note was achieved for one representative of each honey type: multiflorous‐1 (8.3 au.), linden‐2 (8.8 au.), and buckwheat‐1 (7.9 au.). Furthermore, from 102 consumers, the biggest group noted their high acceptance for linden, second for buckwheat honey. The results obtained suggested that linden and buckwheat honey can be successfully used in the novel food development based on these honey types.Practical ApplicationsThe findings of this study can be applied by honey producers, suppliers, and customers to differentiated and determine type of honeys according to their characteristic's sensorial attributes. Moreover, it could help to manufacture a new innovative product based on different honey types. In this case sensory is proposed as an additional but also useful tool that can prove pollen domination in honey samples and eliminate by easy way adulteration of honeys.