Enhancing the quality attributes of processed honey and avoiding its crystallisation by the application of a non-thermal treatment process

Final Report Summary - TOPHONEY (Enhancing the quality attributes of processed honey and avoiding its crystallisation by the application of a non-thermal treatment process)

Executive Summary:

Honey crystallization is a natural phenomenon by which honey turns from liquid to a semi-solid state obtaining a honey cloud, thick and grainy. Nearly all honey crystallizes, some while still in the comb, others within a few days, weeks or months after being extracted.

Honey crystallization is little understood by the consuming public. Many consumers assume incorrectly that crystallized honey is spoiled or has been adulterated with sugar and they either not purchase it or discard it if the crystallization process becomes apparent after the honey is place in the home. Other consumers directly prefer liquid honey.

To delay the onset of crystallization large packers often pasteurize honey destined to retail. During pasteurization, honey is heated to around 80ºC for 1-2 minutes in order to melt glucose micro-crystals which act as nuclei which are the essential starting points for the formation of crystals. Raw honey contains natural vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and nutrients that are beneficial to our health however during pasteurization all are destroyed turned honey to a much poor product

TOPHONEY is a non-thermal alternative to honey pasteurization. It is based on the application of mechanical compression forces that lead in the fragmentation and destruction of honey crystals which act as crystallisation nuclei. This innovative technology reduces the initial content of crystals up to pasteurization levels which extend honey’s shelf-life, whilst retaining the most important quality parameters of raw honey (HMF, diastase and invertase enzyme activity).

Project Context and Objectives:

Honey is a viscous fluid produced by honey bees derived from the nectar of flowers. It is of great importance to human beings due to its flavour, nutrients, vitamins and minerals. One of the characteristics which set honey apart from all other sweetening agents is the presence of enzymes, arising primarily from the bee, pollen and nectar. Nearly all honeys exist in liquid form as stored by bees, but once extracted from the comb, they tend to crystallise within a few days or weeks, causing the product to become cloudy, granular, and highly viscous. Consumers generally regard crystallised honey to be unacceptable, and many consumers believe (often incorrectly) that crystallisation indicates that the honey has gone bad or has been adulterated with sugar.

To delay the onset of crystallisation, most cooperative packers pasteurise their honey destined for retail. During pasteurisation, the honey is flash heated to around 80°C for 1-2 minutes, then flash cooled to 55°C. A vacuum process is generally applied to the honey at 80°C. This process melts glucose micro-crystals, and removes air bubbles present in the untreated honey, which both act as crystallisation nuclei. Their removal typically delays crystallisation to 12+ months post processing, as required by large honey retailers, allowing the honey to be distributed, retailed, and consumed prior to crystallisation.

However, high temperatures reached in pasteurisation can lead to a reduction in honey freshness and quality. For example, heating raises the level of Hydroxylmethylfurfural (HMF) due to the thermal decomposition of fructose. For this reason, EU and International Standards use HMF as an indicator of honey heat damage. Flash heating to 78°C for 15-20 seconds has been shown to raise HMF by 2-5mg/kg, and the longer times used by the industry can lead to an increase of around 7-20mg/kg. Depending on prior storage and processing conditions of honey, the level of HMF following pasteurisation can approach the limit (40 mg/kg in EU).

Pasteurisation has also been shown to cause a 98% reduction in invertase enzyme activity. It has also been shown to reduce the degree of hydrogen peroxide accumulation in honey, and the associated antibacterial properties and also alters the flavour, viscosity and sugar composition. In addition, the application of a vacuum during pasteurisation, removes water from the honey, leading to a 2% loss in honey yield – a considerable drawback for producers.

In response to the current limitations, industrial SME associations are looking for new alternatives, and consider that they will be at a competitive disadvantage if large processors or importers develop a solution to the problem.

The primary scientific and technical objective of TOPHONEY is to delay the onset of honey crystallization, whilst retaining the quality attributes (enzyme activity, etc.) of raw honey by means of a non-thermal process, to eliminate air bubbles and small glucose crystals which act as crystallisation nuclei – i.e. to provide a superior alternative to thermal pasteurization.

Project operational objectives are:
- Eliminate any air bubbles present in the incoming honey
- Reduce the size of glucose crystals in the incoming honey to a specified level
- Delay the onset of crystallisation in the honey to 12+ months under standard storage conditions
- Increase the HMF content of the incoming honey by less than 10%, and preferably by 0%
- Degrade the enzymatic (particularly diastase, invertase and glucose oxidase) activity of the incoming honey by less than 10%, and preferable by 0%
- Retain sensory properties of honey
- Construct industrial system with food-grade materials and components suitable for food processing
- Design scalable system to allow common process rates from 250 kg/hour up to 3,000 kg/hour
- Provide ease of installation into existing and new extraction/processing systems
- Provide stand-alone design, requiring minimal operator intervention

Project Results:

During first steps of the project, physical parameters of honey that may influence with the technology proposed were identified. To this end, different characterization of honey and honey treatments at laboratory scale was carried out with the aim of validate the principle of operation.

In parallel, it has been defined a set of honey quality parameters to be analysed during the development of TOPHONEY system as well as the protocol of sample preparation and the required instrumentation for the measurement. The most important honey parameters to analyse before and after the treatment of honey was the following: HMF, diastase and invertase activity, colour, water content, sugars (fructose, glucose, sucrose), crystals size, time of re-crystallization, pollen analysis, acidity, pH and electrical conductivity.

The most remarkable result achieved in this period was the validation of the principle of operation. In experiments carried out at laboratory level it was observed that the technology proposed reduce crystal size and delay the onset crystallisation of honey. After 15 minutes treatment with TOPHONEY system it is possible to reduce the crystals size to those achieved by means of thermal heating at 45ºC during 72 h and without increasing the level of HMF.

Once validated the principle of operation, the next step was to design a laboratory cell to perform extensive trials with different types of honey under different treatment conditions. To this end, different cell geometries as well as theoretical simulations with two different non-thermal technologies were studied. Finally, it was decided to manufacture two different laboratory test cells and test them in parallel to decide most efficient configuration. The laboratory cells will be a shortened version of the final TOPHONEY industrial cell to facilitate scale-up from the laboratory prototype to the final industrial system with minimum risk.

Using the two laboratory cells developed, exhaustive laboratory tests were carried out including experiments with different types of honey were conducted to understand the factors involved in the crystallisation process. All results gathered with the laboratory cells tests were discussed among the partners to define the final configuration of the TOPHONEY industrial cell was defined. Once decided the configuration of the industrial cell, theoretical modeling and simulations were carry out to obtain the final design of the TOPHONEY industrial cell.

During the last part of the project, the TOPHONEY industrial cell was developed and characterized at laboratory scale in order to assess the correct performance in static and dynamic conditions as well as to adjust the cell. Once the cell was tested at laboratory scale was installed in SCAE facilities for his full characterization at industrial scale. Exhaustive protocol measurements were carried out for industrial validation of the system. Same batch of honey was pasteurized and also treated with TOPHONEY to compare the results obtained. A summary of the most important finding are listed:

- With pasteurization the honey reached a temperature of around 80ºC and with TOPHONEY treatment the honey temperature was lower than 55ºC
- The HMF increase 4-20mg/kg after pasteurization but do not suffer any change after TOPHONEY treatment
- With pasteurization the diastase enzyme was reduced up to 98% but do no not suffer any decrease after TOPHONEY treatment
- With pasteurization the invertase enzyme suffered 100% destruction however with TOPHONEY system the reduction was less than 10%
- The percentage of crystals pasteurizaton was around 0.3% and after TOPHONEY treatment was less than 1%
The final conclusion gathered is that TOPHONEY technology reduce the initial content of crystals up to pasteurization levels (which extends honey’s shelf-life), whilst retaining the most important quality parameters of raw honey (HMF, diastase and invertase enzyme activity).

Potential Impact:

The EU-27 produced 202,000 tonnes of honey in 2005 (17% of world production), second only to China, with 299,000 tonnes (25% of world production). Despite this, the EU is only 54% self sufficient, and imports around 140,000 tonnes of honey annually (making it the world's largest importer of honey). 50% of honey imported into the EU comes from Argentina. The EU exports only 4% of its production, primarily to Switzerland and the USA.

The largest honey producer in the EU is Spain, with 42,000 tonnes/year (21% of EU production), followed by Germany 20,000 tonnes (10%) and Hungary 20,000 tonnes (10%). A census of EU-27 beekeepers for 2008 indicates there are 13.6 million beehives, owned by 595,775 beekeepers, of which 17,800 are SMEs (approx. 3% of total beekeepers). The average number of hives per professional beekeeper is 235, but varies between member states. Spain, with the highest level of professionalization in the EU (around 80% of hives are owned by professionals), has an average of 326 hives per SME beekeeper, compared to 128 for Greece and 173 for Germany.

With an EU-27 production of around 202,000 tonnes: the average yield per hive is 15kg per year, and the average production per SME beekeeper is 3.5 tonnes. In absolute terms, most professional beekeepers are concentrated in the following five member states: Greece, Spain, France, Italy and Hungary.

Based on an average producer price of €2.34/kg SME beekeepers receive total revenue of €150M per year from honey sales alone. In addition to honey, SME producers also produce beeswax and pollen, which are of increasing economic importance. The sector also generates indirect revenues worth billions of Euros per year, via honey bees acting as crop pollinators.
Benefit for the sector as a whole: The 17,800 SME beekeepers in the EU-27, with an average 235 hives per beekeeper and a yield of 15kg per hive, produce approximately 63,000 tonnes/year (i.e. around 31% of total EU honey production).

Partner SME-AGs and SME end users, estimate, that in most cases, TOPHONEY could deliver a 10% premium (for high quality and long shelf life) for processed honey sold to the consumer and the retailer, and a 5% premium (for high quality and no need for melting) for processed honey sold to the industry or wholesaler.

Socio-economic impact:

Rural areas represent more than 90% of EU territory and contain more than half of the EU's population. The proposed TOPHONEY technology will protect a traditional economic activity of particular importance to European rural areas through technological innovation. This will be achieved by developing technological user-friendly tools for the production of a quality product, with extended shelf-life and greater saleability, contributing to rural development. TOPHONEY technology will be cost effective and user-friendly, increasing the knowledgebase of SME honey producers in these regions while providing them tools to preserve and help expand their businesses, helping small bee farms to remain active and functional and, consequently, supporting employment.

The ability to improve honey production and quality as well as the revenues of SME honey producers and reduce honey processing time will contribute to the quality of life of the end-users. The significance of this technology is also in preserving the primary healthy elements in honey, preventing the degradation of the nutrient quality of the product and increasing its health benefits.

For at least 2700 years, honey has been used to treat a variety of ailments through topical application. As an antimicrobial agent honey has potential for treating a variety of ailments, including treatments of antibiotic resistant strains such as MRSA (methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus). Antibacterial medicinal properties of honey are the result of the low water activity causing osmosis, hydrogen peroxide effect and high acidity (commonly between pH 3.2 and 4.5). Topical honey has been also used successfully in a comprehensive treatment of diabetic ulcers when the patient cannot use other topical antibiotics; the gastro protective health benefits of high quality honey have also been well-documented.

List of Websites:

http://tophoney.eu

Final Report Summary - TOPHONEY (Enhancing the quality attributes of processed honey and avoiding its crystallisation by the application of a non-thermal treatment process)

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