SENSORY ANALYSIS OF HONEYS PRODUCED BY AFRICANIZED BEES IN DIFFERENT BEE FLORAS

Abstract

The honey is one of the purest products of nature, derived from nectar and other natural secretions of the plants that are collected and processed by bees. Its composition mainly depends on the vegetable sources they derive. The smell, taste, color and viscosity are important characteristics in the evaluation and acceptance of honeys by the customer. Therefore, this work had the goal to evaluate the organoleptic characteristics and the buying intention of two honeys (light and dark) by the tasters. At Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Unidade Acadêmica de Garanhuns was performed the sensory analysis of two honeys produced by honey bees in the backwoods of Ceará. Light honey with quince tree (Croton sonderianus Mull Arg.) flora predominance, and dark honey mainly obtained from the cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale L.) flora. A total of 50 tasters filled a form that at first collected information about age, gender, schooling, honey consumption frequency and the way they used to consume the product. Afterward, the forms evaluated both honeys through hedical scale structured in nine points (1= strongly disliked; 5= neither like, nor dislike; 9= liked a lot), color characteristics, viscosity, smell and global acceptance of the product. Lastly, the buying intention was evaluated (1= surely wouldn’t buy; 5= have doubts about buying; 9= would certainly buy). According to the tasters it’s been found the low consumption of honey, once most of them use the product only once a month. When it comes to the way of consumption, in natura honey was the most related. In the light honey, the most prized characteristics were color and viscosity, in the dark honey, emphasis for viscosity. Regarding to the buying intention, 35% and 30% answered that would certainly buy the product, for light and dark honey, respectively. The honeys showed nice acceptance by the tasters.