Quality evaluation of polish honey: On‐line survey, sensory study, and consumer acceptance

Abstract

The aim of this research is the evaluation of the sensory attributes of most-favorable honey types to select honey with the best sensorial overall and the highest consumer acceptance. The on-line questionnaire revealed that the group of 515 Polish citizens mostly consumed multiflorous (38.4% of respondents), linden (30.2%), and buckwheat (11.4%) honey. The material was multiflorous, linden and buckwheat honey, in total nine samples, purchased from Polish beekeepers. In the next step, the sensory panel determined sweet and honey-like aromas as the characteristic descriptors. Acid, pungent, and bitter tastes appeared in the evaluation; however, they did not negatively affect the overall assessment. Honey differed significantly in density, from liquid multiflorous and linden honey to very thick buckwheat honey. Then, the highest overall note was achieved for one representative of each honey type: multiflorous-1 (8.3 au.), linden-2 (8.8 au.), and buckwheat-1 (7.9 au.). Furthermore, from 102 consumers, the biggest group noted their high acceptance for linden, second for buckwheat honey.The results obtained suggested that linden and buckwheat honey can be successfully used in the novel food development based on these honey types. Practical ApplicationsThe findings of this study can be applied by honey producers, suppliers, and customers to differentiated and determine type of honeys according to their characteristic's sensorial attributes. Moreover, it could help to manufacture a new innovative product based on different honey types. In this case sensory is proposed as an additional but also useful tool that can prove pollen domination in honey samples and eliminate by easy way adulteration of honeys. | INTRODUCTIONHoney is a natural product produced by bees from flowers' pollen. From a sensory point of view, honey has a very pleasant aroma and sweet taste (Aparna & Rajalakshmi, 2009). It has already been proved that honeys of different botanical origins will not have the same sensory features. Light-colored honeys (acacia, linden, etc.) have a milder flavor than the dark ones (buckwheat, chestnut, or heather). Tahir et al. (2016) found a relationship between sensory profiles of honeys of various botanical origin and their aroma compounds composition. Importantly, their research showed that "not all the sensory attributes could be explained by the measured aroma compounds." In turn, Stolzenbach, Byrne and Bredie (2011) presented the "sensory local uniqueness" of honey and declared that pollen characterization is correlated with sensory properties for different honey types. Moreover, Siegmund, Urdl,Jurek and Leitner, (2017) noted that honeys' botanical and geographical origin can majorly influence the quality attributes including flavor, odor, texture, and color of honey and as such significantly determines

Inventory of human-edible products from native Acacia sensu lato in Africa, America, and Asia: Spotlight on Senegalia seeds, overlooked wild legumes in the arid tropics

“…Though Acacia s.l. honeys are likely appreciated for the uniqueness of their sensory attributes (Starowicz et al, 2021), they are still barely studied. In contrast, a few fleshy fruits, shoots or young leaves, and seeds seem primarily used for basic nutritional needs (as fruits, vegetables and legumes) and secondarily for their medicinal attributes, indicating a food and medicine continuum (Msika et al, 2017;Subhan et al, 2018;Ruangsuriya et al, 2022;Zothantluanga et al, 2019).…”

“…Evaluation of sensory properties of Acacia s.l. products (i.e., gum, honey, seeds) have only been undertaken recently, providing some acceptance scores and lexicon for sensory descriptions (Mepba et al, 2006;Njume et al, 2021;Smyth et al, 2012;Starowicz et al, 2021). While those sensory tests have been mainly performed on Acacia s.s. seeds from Australia, they imply that edible products from native Acacia s.l.…”

Perfil sensorial y mapa de preferencia para mieles argentinas de diferentes orígenes florales

“…Al relacionar las preferencias de los consumidores con las muestras de miel, se obtuvo el mapa externo de preferencias (Figura 4). Esta herramienta permite identificar los patrones de preferencia de los consumidores y brinda información para introducir o quitar un producto del mercado (Starowicz et al, 2021). Se puede observar que la miel con mayor aceptabilidad entre los consumidores fue la muestra I, que alcanzó prácticamente un 70 %, seguida por la miel II, seleccionada por el 60 % de los participantes; mientras que las muestras IV y VI superaron el 40 % de preferencia.…”

“…El análisis descriptivo cuantitativo (ADC) se utiliza, especialmente, para determinar las características sensoriales de un alimento (Starowicz et al, 2021); mientras que las técnicas de mapeos de preferencia permiten relacionar esta información con la preferencia de los consumidores, con el objetivo de identificar los atributos que la direccionan (van Kleef et al, 2006;Dooley et al, 2010).…”

Unraveling the Physicochemical, Nutritional and Antioxidant Properties of the Honey Produced from the Fallopia japonica Plant

“…In addition, a comparative analysis with honeys that have similar characteristics in terms electrical conductivity, carbohydrate profile, mineral content, diastase index, HMF content, etc., was also performed. These include buckwheat honey (Fagopyrum esculentum)-from the same Polygonaceae family [52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]-and manuka honey [60].…”