Prediction of Adulteration in Honey Using Rheological Parameters

Honey is a sweet substance that can be adulterated easily with inexpensive sweeteners by making syrup. Water being the second major constituent of honey, makes its flow behavior one of the important parameter for quality determination. In the present study, the rheological characteristics of honey samples adulterated with different concentrations of jaggery syrup were studied using rotational rheometer with parallel plate geometry. The viscosity of honey and adulterated honey samples was determined by varying temperature and percentage of jaggery concentration. All the adulterated honey samples behaved as non-Newtonian fluid. The viscosity increased linearly with increase in concentration of adulteration and varied from 2.48–4.80 Pa s as adulteration increased from 5 to 30%. Oscillatory tests were performed to find the possible effect of storage time on different honey samples. It was found that adulteration decreased the shelf life of honey, thus rheology can be considered one of the important parameters to determine adulteration of honey.