Abstract
Honey is delicious, nutritious and has high medicinal value in comparison to other sweeteners. Honey is usually extracted from comb as immature product which results in high moisture which makes it more liable to be fermented by osmophilic yeasts. So, it needs to be processed for moisture reduction, to delay crystallization and to overcome the problem of fermentation. In the present investigation, a honey moisture reduction system was developed and tested to reduce the moisture content of honey to about 17%. The system consisted of a flat plate inclined at an angle. The plate was heated from the underside and honey for moisture reduction was re-circulated over it until desired moisture content was achieved. Experiments were conducted for honey moisture reduction at water temperature of 40–70 °C with plate inclinations of 30°–60° according to four level full factorial design of experiment. The results showed that the total reduction time required for reaching moisture content of about 17% varied with water temperature and angle of inclination. The moisture reduction time required for reaching a moisture content of 17 percent at 40 °C was about five times the time required at 70 °C. The energy cost of honey moisture content reduction from 21.5 to 17% was Rs. 4.7 to Rs. 12.5 per kg.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abramovic H, Jamnik M, Burkan L, Kac M (2008) Water activity and water content in Slovenian honeys. Food Control 9(11):1086–1090
Bogdanov S, Jurendic T, Sieber R, Gallmann P (2008) Honey for nutrition and health: a review. J Am Coll Nutr 27(6):677–689
Chakraverty A (1988) Post harvest technology of cereals Post Harvest Technology of Cereals. Pulses and Oilseeds. Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi
Chirife J, Zamora MC, Motto A (2006) The correlation between water activity and % moisture in honey: fundamental aspects and application to argentine honeys. J Food Eng 72(3):287–292
Crane E (1995) Removing water from honey. In: Kevan PG (ed) The Asiatic hive bee: apiculture, biology, and role in sustainable development in tropical and subtropical Asia. Enviro-quest Ltd, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, pp 233–243
Cui ZW, Sun LJ, Wei C, Sun DW (2008) Preparation of dry honey by microwave–vacuum drying. J Food Eng 84(4):582–590
Dustmann JH (1993) Honey quality and its control. Am Bee J 133(9):648–651
Ellis M (1987) Lowering the moisture content of small lots of extracted honey. Am Bee J 127:182–183
Gill RS, Hans VS, Singh S, Pal Singh P, Dhaliwal SS (2015) A small scale honey dehydrator. J Food Sci Tech 52(10):6695–6702
Kuehl LJ (1988) Apparatus for removing moisture from honey. US Patent 4763572
Machado De-Melo AA, Almeida-Muradian L, Sancho MT, Mate AP (2018) Composition and properties of Apis Mellifera honey: a review. J Apic Res 57(1):5–37
Minhas S (2010) Nutritional, storage and value addition studies on raw and heat processed honey. Ph D thesis, CSKHPKV, Palampur
Moerman F, Partington E (2014) Materials of construction for food processing equipment and services: requirements, strengths and weaknesses. J Hyg Eng Des 6:10–37
Nedic N, Gojak M, Zlatanovic I, Rudonja N, Lazarevic K, Drazic M, Gligorevic K, Pajic M (2020) Study of vacuum and freeze drying of bee honey. Therm Sci. https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI200317194N
Nurhadi B, Andoyo R, Mahani Indiarto R (2012) Study the properties of honey powder produced from spray drying and vacuum drying method. Int Food Res J 19(3):907–912
Paysen J (1987) A method for drying honey on a commercial scale. Am Bee J 127:273–282
Platt JL Jr, Ellis JRB (1984) Removing water from honey at ambient pressure. US Patent No. 4472450
Ruegg M, Blanc B (1981) The water activity of honey and related sugar solutions. Lebensm-Wiss Technol 14:1–6
Serin S, Turhan KN, Turhan M (2018) Correlation between water activity and moisture content of Turkish flower and pine honeys. Food Sci Technol 38(2):238–243
Shamala TR, Jyothi YS (1999) Honey: it is more than just sweet. India Food Ind 18:349–357
Singh S, Gill RS, Singh PP (2011) Desiccant honey dehydrator. Int J Ambient Energy 32(2):62–69
Stevenson A et al (2015) Multiplication Of microbes below 0690 water activity: implications for terrestrial and extraterrestrial life. Environ Microbiol 17(2):257–277
Suhag Y, Nanda V (2016) Optimization for spray drying process parameters of nutritionally rich honey powder using response surface methodology. Cogent Food Agric 2:1176631. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311932.2016.1176631
Thumber PF (2002) You can make your own honey dryer. Am Bee J 142:669–671
Wakhle DM (1997) Beekeeping technology: production, characteristics and uses of honey and other products. In: Mishra RC, Garg R (eds) Book of Perspectives in Indian Apiculture. Agro Botanica, Bikaner, pp 150–186
Wakhle DM, Nair SK, Phadke RP (1988) Reduction of excess moisture in honey- I, a small scale unit. Indian Bee J 50:98–100
Wakhle DM, Phadke RP, Pais DVE, Nair SK (1996) Design for honey processing unit: part II. Indian Bee J 58:5–9
Yener E, Ungan S, Ozilgen M (1987) Drying behavior of honey-starch mixtures. J Food Sci 52(4):1054–1058
Yunus MAM, Abid A, Sahlan SB, Bin MT Khairi M, Aisha A (2019) Automated honey dehydrator based on optimized drying heat. In: Proceedings of IEEE international conference on automatic control and intelligent systems, pp. 305–310
Zamora MC, Chirife J, Roldan D (2006) On the nature of the relationship between water activity and % moisture in honey. Food Control 17:642–647
Acknowledgements
The manuscript is the original research work done in the department of Renewable Energy Engineering, PAU Ludhiana, Punjab (India). There is no copyright infringement in figures or in any part of manuscript.
Funding
There was no funding to this work by any financial body or funding agency.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
It is also submitted that there is no conflict of interest in submission of paper to the journal.
Ethical approval
It has neither been submitted in any other journal nor under consideration. The authors have read and approved the manuscript and are aware of the submission in JFST. The corresponding author shall review at least three papers submitted to JFST.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Singh, I., Singh, S., Hans, V.S. et al. Development of inclined plate honey moisture reduction system. J Food Sci Technol 59, 615–624 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-021-05049-w
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-021-05049-w