Honey moisture reduction and its quality.

Beekeeping has been widely promoted in many countries as a major contributor to rural development. Honey is a sweet and viscous liquid which has sweetness due to the presence of monosaccharides. The major constituents of honey are sugars, water, proteins, enzymes, acids and minerals, while the major causes of quality deterioration include heating at high temperatures, high moisture content, adulteration, poor packaging and poor storage conditions. Heating not only eases the processing of bottling by reducing the viscosity of honey, but also reduces the water content in honey to prevent fermentation and delays the granulation by destroying large sugar nuclei. The paper discusses about the different honey moisture reduction systems designed by research workers as well as beekeepers at farm level and the different quality parameters affected by thermal treatment of honey.