Safety and quality of natural bee honey produced under different trademarks as sold in supermarkets
Authors: Lyasota V. , Bogatko N. , Bukalova N. , Dzmil V. , Hitska O. , Mazur T. , Tkachuk S. , Prilipko T. , Vakula B. 
Published: September 2023

Against the background of the globalization of economic relations between countries, the activation of international trade is becoming urgent. In view of this, one of the main tasks for Ukraine as a member of the WTO and in connection with the prospect of its accession to the EU is the harmonization of national regulatory and legal requirements with international ones in the field of food safety and quality. The purpose of the research is to assess the safety and quality of honey of various types of individual domestic producers and to develop express, efficient methods for determining the quality of honey using the POCKET-PAL-3 refractometer and the safety of honey for establishing its adulteration with sodium hydrogen carbonate, alkaline detergents using indicators, as well as beet sugar by microscopy. The object of the study was the assessment of organoleptic, physico-chemical, microbiological parameters of natural bee honey of different botanical origins and varieties and detection of its adulteration, which was sold in supermarkets from various domestic manufacturers under the following trademarks. Analytical, organoleptic, physicochemical, microbiological, radiological, statistical methods of research were used to implement the research goal. Honey produced by different manufacturers according to organoleptic indicators: appearance, color, consistency, smell and taste, met the requirements of DSTU 4497:2005, except for sample №. 3, in which a discrepancy in taste was found. At the same time, according to physical and chemical parameters, honey samples №. 1, 2, 4 and 5 met the requirements of DSTU 4497:2005, except for sample №. 3 - by mass fraction of sucrose (to anhydrous substance) - 6.48±0.04 %, which did not meet the requirements of the current DSTU, the increase was 8.00 %. According to microbiological parameters and specific activity of Cs-137, it was established that all honey samples met the requirements of the national standard of Ukraine (DSTU 4497:2005). Tests were conducted to detect the adulteration of honey with sodium bicarbonate using the bromocresol green indicator, alkaline detergents using the chrome dark blue indicator, and beet sugar adulteration. For the express determination of the qualitative indicator - the mass fraction of honey, we used the POCKET-PAL-3 refractometer (Poland) for the first time. So, for the first time, we used the POCKET-PAL-3 refractometer (Poland) for the express determination of the mass fraction of water, which provides an opportunity to determine the mass fraction of dry matter with the subsequent calculation of the mass fraction of water, which ensures the reliability of the obtained indicators in 99.9 % compared to the indicators, established using a URL refractometer (model 1) in accordance with the requirements of DSTU 4497, and for the first time, patented methods of establishing the adulteration of honey with sodium bicarbonate, alkaline detergents were applied, the probability of the obtained indicators was 99.9 %, as well as adulteration with beet sugar by the microscopy method.
Key words: natural honey, honey production capacity, organoleptic, physicochemical, microbiological parameters, safety, quality, consumer.