Honey thermal treatment

Tosi E., Ciappini M., Re E. Lucero H. (2002). Honey thermal treatment effects on hydroxymethylfurfural content. Food Chemistry Vol. 77, pp. 71-74. 

Effects of Thermal Treatment and Storage on Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) Content and Diastase Activity of Honeys Collected from Middle Anatolia in Turkey... 

Thermal treatment, applied to honey, may destroy vitamins and bionutrients, and produce a simultaneous decrease in diastase activity and an increase in HMF content. Honey treatment temperature and time must be limited when pasteurising and stabilising it both diastase activity and HMF content are national and international parameters used as controls so as to limit thermal treatment application. HMF can be formed by hexose dehydration in acid media or by the Maillaid reaction [11,12]. According to Ibarz et al., HMF formation can be described by a second order kinetics (auto-catalytic), with the following equation as expression model [13] ... 

Escriche, I., Visquert, M., Juan-Borras, M., and Fito, P. (2009). Influence of simulated industrial thermal treatments on the volatile fractions of different varieties of honey. Food Chem. 112,329-338. 

Pasteurization of honey is an essential step during processing to prevent these problems (Bath Sin, 1999). However, thermal treatment can modify its essential physicochemical composition and deteriorate its quality. Hydroxymethyl-fiirfural (HMF) content in honey is an international parameter related to honey quality used to assess and control the effect of thermal treatment. This parameter has a maximum level controlled by law. The European Union allows a maximinn HMF concentration of 40 mg/kg in honey... 

Enzyme inactivation or changes in the distribution patterns of enzymes in subcellular particles of a tissue can occur during storage or thermal treatment of food. Since such changes are readily detected by analytical means, enzymes often serve as suitable indicators for revealing such treatment of food. Examples are the detection of pasteurization of milk, beer or honey, and differentiation between fresh and deep frozen meat or fish. 

---