Honey is a concentrated aqueous solution of sugar, especially glucose and fructose, and minor amounts of dextrin, enzymes, waxes, volatile oils, organic acids, ethers, albuminoidal gum substances and minerals. Commercially available honey samples vary in quality according to various factors such as climate diversity, type of lora of the surrounding region, geographical characteristics, processing, loral supply period, and packaging and storage conditions, which can compromise the standardization and quality of the inal product. The diferent techniques that will be presented in this chapter to assess the quality of honey are tests required by identiication standards and national and international quality control or are important quality tools that can be used in the evaluation of the conditions for obtaining and processing of the honey, fraud identiication and changes to and/or adulteration of the honey, ensuring the physical and chemical composition of the project and guaranteeing quality standards, directly impacting the shelf life and use and presentation of the product.

The aim of this chapter is to describe the most commonly used techniques to evaluate the microbiological characteristics of honey for the purpose of identifying its contaminant lora, its signiicance and its control in this type of food. Honey is a product that is rich in simple sugars, minerals, vitamins and bioactive compounds and possesses an antimicrobial activity of great signiicance for human health. However, as it has physical and chemical properties that are unfavourable for the proliferation of micro-lora, honey can contain a large population of microorganisms from two sources of contamination-the irst primarily represented by pollen, the digestive system of the bee, dust, air and the lower itself; and the second as the result of negligence and the absence of good health practices during handling and use; for example, placing honey in wooden beehives directly on the loor or the use of improperly washed honey extraction equipment, rather than equipment based on the oxidizable material, or using very dark honeycombs and storing the honey for long periods in wooden beehives. As honey is a natural product, the risks inherent to the lack of industrial processing, such as pasteurization and strict microbiological quality control, are often overlooked.

Some filamentous fungi are able to grow in food and produce toxic metabolites. It occurs mainly in grains, cereals, oilseeds and some by-products. The growth of fungi in a particular food is governed largely by a series of physical and chemical parameters. The production of toxic metabolites is not confined to a single group of molds irrespective of whether they are grouped according to structure, ecology, or phylogenetic relationships. Mycotoxins can be carcinogenic and cause several harmful effects to both human and animal organisms, in addition to generating large economic losses. The major mycotoxins found in food are the aflatoxins, fumonisins, ochratoxins, patulin, zearalenone, and trichothecenes, generally stable at high temperatures and long storage periods. Considering the difficult prevention and control, international organizations for food safety establish safe levels of these toxins in food destined for both human and animal consumption. Good agricultural practices and control of temperature and moisture during storage are factors which contribute significantly to inhibit the production of mycotoxins. The use of some fungistatic products, such as essential oils and antioxidants, as well as physical, mechanical, chemical, or thermal processing, represents important methods to have the concentration of mycotoxins reduced in food.

Efficient honey production requires knowledge about the behavior of the workers and the parameters that influence the strength of the colony. In this study, the objective was to analyze the interaction between the foraging behavior of worker honeybees and pollen storage levels in Africanized honeybees colonies. Colonies with low pollen storage increased pollen intake rates, but this value was 15% lower than colonies with high pollen storage, demonstrating a direct relationship between the pollen storage levels and foraging activity. The difference in pollen intake rates varied according to the number of foraging honeybees and pollen load collected by each individual. Under both high and low pollen storage, colonies returned pollen storage to initial level within 16 days, suggesting that honeybees regulate pollen storage levels around a homeostatic set point. Relationship between pollen storage levels and colony brood production was also found, indicating how alterations in the behavior of each individual can affect the strength of the colony.

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