Investigating the influencing factors on the quality and authenticity of nutritional and natural honeys: the effect of type of region, type of nutrition and harvesting time

Considering the ever-increasing frauds in honey production and the huge price difference between natural honey and nutritional honeys and the lack of a national standard for it, a laboratory study and investigation to determine the physicochemical characteristics of the product with the aim of spreading the production of a healthy product, according to the standard And informing consumers is very important. Six authentication features including sucrose, sugar before hydrolysis, fructose to glucose ratio, diastase, proline and hydroxymethylfurfural were tested. Also, the parameters of humidity, free acidity and electrical conductivity, which have a great impact on the diagnosis of honey quality, were measured. In this research, the effect of factors such as the type of region, the type of nutrition and the time of honey harvesting on the authenticity factors of honey according to the Iranian standard has been investigated. The results of the test on honey samples obtained from feeding with sugar syrup showed that if a lower concentration of sugar syrup is used (2 parts of sugar and 3 parts of water) and the harvesting time is observed, only the parameters of sucrose, sugar before hydrolysis, the ratio of fructose to Glucose and in some areas proline do not fall within the permitted range of the natural honey standard. In addition, except for the characteristic of sucrose, other characteristics did not have much difference with the allowed amount. However, the amount of sucrose in the best conditions was about 15, which is much higher than the standard limit of natural honey. On the other hand, by changing the way of feeding and choosing longer periods of time and fewer meals for the bees, the bees will be given the opportunity to collect nectar and will do more processing on the honey. The resulting honeys were called semi-nourished honey, whose characteristics were much closer to natural honey. The range of sucrose of the samples of the second harvest varied in the range of 8.5-10.5% by weight, and the ratio of fructose to glucose and reducing sugars were within the standard permissible range. Diastasis values were within the standard range except in Golpayegan region; probably due to geographical conditions and vegetation. Even though the amount of proline was found to be lower than that of natural honey, it was within the allowed standard range. According to the obtained results, taking into account the best conditions in terms of sugar syrup concentration, feeding method and harvesting time, sucrose parameters, fructose to glucose ratio and in some cases proline were affected and their values were within the permissible limits of the national standard. They are not suitable for natural honey. For the sucrose of feeding honeys with sugar at least 12%, the ratio of fructose to glucose at least 0.8 and proline at least 170 ppm is suggested.