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2. Zappalà M., Fallico B., Arena E., Verzera A. 2005. Methods for the determination of HMF inhoney: a comparison. Food Control 16, 273-277.HMF (5-hydroxymethylfurfuraldehyde) is essential to evaluate the conformity of honey to the current legislation.Elevated concentrations of HMF in honey provide an indication of overheating, storage in poor conditionsor age of the honey. Both the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Alinorm 01/25, 2000) and the European Union(Directive 110/2001) established that its concentration in honey usually should not exceed 80 or 40 mg/kg, respectively.The International Honey Commission recommends three methods for the determination of HMF: twospectrophotometric methods, determination after White and after Winkler and a HPLC method. These methodswere recently tested by the International Honey Commission (1999). Aim of this research was to compare HMFvalues in unifloral honeys measured by the three methods. From our data, HPLC and White methods usuallygive similar values, except for eucalyptus honey; Winkler method gave for all honeys higher values than othertwo methods.3. Fallico B., Arena E., Verzera A., Zappalà M. 2006. The European Food legislation and itsimpact on honey sector. Accred. Qual. Assur. 11, 49-54.The paper discusses the role of EC Directive 2001/110 on honey trading. Authors have demonstrated that, beingthe amount of developed hydroxymenthylfurfural (HMF) also correlated to honey chemical composition, thelimit of 15mg\Lg, in low enzume honeys, is unjustifiable and become a barrier to trade for some unifloral honeys(citrus).4. Fallico B., Arena E., Zappalà M. 2008. Degradation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural in honey. J.of Food Science73, 625-631.5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is the most important intermediate product of the acid-catalyzed dehydrationreaction of hexoses and/or Maillard reaction; furthermore, it is the most used index to evaluate thermal damagesor ageing in food products. Usually its degradation reactions, being very slow, are neglected. This study reportsthe findings concerning the degradation kinetics of HMF, in honeys of different floral origin at a temperature between25 and 50 ◦C. The results highlighted higher degradation rates (kHMF degradation) compared to the correspondingformation rates (kHMF formation) in chestnut and citrus samples. Similar k-values were found inmultifloral honey.Moreover, the reaction of HMF degradation was characterized by lower activation energy (Ea) values comparedto Ea formation values. The final concentration of HMF in honey, during storage at room temperature, should beascribed to high sugar concentration. The fluctuation of HMF in honeys could depend on the equilibrium betweenthe accumulation and the degradation processes. This can affect the validity of HMF as storage index insome honeys, above all during the analysis of those honeys whose legislation is too restrictive (citrus) or inchestnut honey analysis where it does not accumulate.5. Fallico B., Arena E., Zappalà M. 2009. Prediction of honey shelf life. J. Food Quality, inpress.Fourteen commercial honey samples of different botanical origin (acacia, chestnut, citrus, eucalyptus, multifloral)were stored for up to 18 months at room temperature. Both 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and diastasewere evaluated and kinetics carried out. The highest HMF increase was in citrus and eucalyptus honeys at 3mg/kg/month; the lowest in chestnut at 0.256 mg/kg/month. The highest diastase deactivation was in eucalyptushoney at 0.485 DU/kg/month; the lowest was in chestnut at 0.258 DU/kg/month. Honey shelf life was estimatedfor both indices, HMF and diastase, using a Bayesian approach. The results show that commercial honey shelflife depends on botanical origin as well as processing. Except chestnut, all other honeys showed shorter shelflives than the declared one (usually 36 months). The shortest values, 15 months, were for citrus and eucalyptushoneys. The longest, 20 months, was for acacia and multifloral honeys.SISTAL - SOCIETA’ ITALIANA DI SCIENZE E TECNOLOGIE ALIMENTARIDipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Agroalimentari, Università degli Studi della TusciaVia San Camillo de Lellis, 01100 ViterboTel.: 0761- 35 74 94/7 , Fax: 0761- 35 74 98, e-mail: mmoresi@unitus.it76