Honeybee Production and Marketing Systems, Constraints - IPMS ...

4.4 Honey Quality in Bure DistrictThe moisture content of honey in this study varied from 16.10 to 23.36 with the mean of 18.83(Table 26). Among the honey samples 95.2 % had moisture content within the accepted range(less than 21%). Moisture content is one of the important parameter to be considered in thequality of honey. Those honey samples produced in relatively high humid areas like South andSouth West part of the country found to be consists high moisture than honey produced from lowhumid areas of the country. Moreover, honey from traditional hives usually has higher moisturecontent than the honey collected from improved hives (Nuru Adgaba, 1999). In this result themoisture content of honey from traditional and top bar hive are higher than box hive.The mineral (ash) content of the samples from the current study ranged from 0.14 – 0.16% with amean of 0.27%. Mineral content of honey of different countries ranges from 0.02 – 1.03%. Theaccepted mineral content should be less than 0.6% (Table 28). In this result the mineral contentof honey samples (100%) falls within the accepted standard quality (Table 26).Acidity of honey samples analyzed for this study ranged from 20.3 – 35.3 meq acid/kg withmean of 28.83 meq acid/kg. It is one of its merits for its antimicrobial property. When the aciditybecomes high, the honey becomes sour. The recommended acidity of a honey is usually less than40 meq acid/kg of honey (Codex Alimentarius Commission, 2001). In this study 100% of thesamples fall with the accepted standard quality (Table 26).The other quality criterion of the honey is pH value. pH value of honey obtained in this studyranges from 2.49 to 4.58 with mean value of 3.53. Published reports indicated that acceptable pHof honey to be between 3.2 and 4.5 (Codex almentarius commission, 2001). In this study 95.2%of the samples fall with the accepted standard quality (Table 26).The hydroxylmethylfurfural (HMF) test of the sample ranged from 34.00 – 41.11 mg/kg withmean value of 38.55 mg/kg. The amount of HMF in the honey is one of the important indicatorsof honey whether it is over heated, aged or adulterated with invert sugar (hydrolyzed sucrose). In74