HONEY
By: Arieal Lombard
Final Project
Chemistry
What Is Honey?
• Honey is an organic, natural
sugar alternative with no
additives, easy on the stomach,
adapts to all cooking, and has an
indefinite shelf-life
• Honey is primarily composed of
fructose, glucose and water. It
also contains other sugars as
well trace enzymes, minerals,
vitamins and amino acids
History
• Its names comes from the English hunig,
and it was the first and most
widespread sweetener used by man
• In the Old Testament of the Bible, Israel
was often referred to as “the land of
milk and honey.”
• Honey was valued highly and often used
as a form of currency, tribute, or
offering. In the 11th century A.D., German
peasants paid their feudal lords in
How Honey is Made
• Bees perform the vital service of
pollinating fruits, vegetables and
other types of food producing plants in
the course of honey making
• The nectar mixture they gather from
the flowers is carried back to the hive
and placed into the honeycomb cells
• Honeybees carry the nectar and mix it
with enzymes in a pouch located in their
body (which begins the process of
changing the nectar into honey
• The bees then evaporate much of the
water out of the nectar mixture to
thicken it
Fermentation of Honey
• Beekeepers gather the honey from
the supers in the hive-A super is a
section of the hive that contains
several frames of honey in
honeycombs
• The supers are taken to the honey
house for extracting-A extractor
is a machine that is made to spin
the frames of honey until the
honey spins out and drips down the
sides of the extractor
Chemical Makeup
Chemical Characteristics
pH
Honey contains a number of acids which include amino
acids (0.05-0.1%)
and organic acids (0.57%, range: 0.17-1.17%). The average
pH of honey is 3.9
(with a typical range of 3.4 to 6.1).
Proteins, Amino Acids & Isoelectric Point
Protein 0.266%
Nitrogen 0.043%
Amino Acids 0.05 – 0.1%
Isoelectric Point 4.3
Why is some honey light and
some dark?
• The color and taste depends on the kinds of
flower the nectar came from
• Clover makes a light colored, mild tasting honey
that is usually found in grocery stores
• Another popular variety is Orange Blossom
honey, it is usually darker that Clover
References
•www.queenbeejan.com
•www.homecooking.about.com
•www.honey.com