Affiliations 

  • 1 Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin
MyJurnal

Abstract

Honey is a sweet liquid food of high nutritional value and it provides immense health benefits. It is highly concentrated with sugar and contains mostly glucose and fructose, which will crystallize over a period of time. Crystallisation of honey will affect its quality, as well as consumers’ acceptability. Storage condition is one of the factors that influence the crystallisation of honey. Different types of honey may need different storage conditions to retain the quality. This research was conducted with the aims to study the crystallisation behaviour of the selected Malaysian honeys and to determine the storage conditions that influence the formation of crystal. The crystallisation of Malaysian honeys (Hutan, Kelulut, Acacia, Gelam) stored at 25, 4 and -20oC for different storage times of 0, 5, 14, 30, 60 and 180 days was analyzed by a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and sugar composition was analyzed using a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that Hutan honey had the greatest crystal formation at the storage temperature of 4oC even after 14 days of storage. Glucose compositions in Hutan and Gelam honeys were also high which were 33.49 ± 0.53% and 33.93 ± 0.15 %, respectively. The enthalpy value for the storage temperature of 25oC, which represents the amount of heat needed to melt crystals present in honey, was the lowest (0.37 ± 0.1 – 2.56 ± 0.5 J/g) compared to other storage temperatures, which showed only a small amount of crystals was formed at this temperature. Thus, this study suggested that the crystallisation behaviour of Malaysian honeys is influenced by the storage condition and will be different for each type of honey.