Q. Illustrate the maturation of honey?

Honey is the oldest sweet food known to man. Although honey is a natural sweetener, it is considered a refined sugar because 96% of dry matter is simple sugars: fructose, glucose and sucrose. Honey has the highest calorie content of all sugars with 65 calories/tablespoon, compared to the 48 calories/tablespoon found in table sugar.

Honey is produced by honey bees from nectar of plants, as well as, from honey dew. Among the components of honey (sugars, water, organic acids, enzymes, amino acids, wax, pigments and pollen etc.), some of the components are derived from plants, some are added by the bees and some are due to maturation of honey.

The honey marketed in India falls under two categories:

1) Extracted Apiary Honey

2) Squeezed Honey

Bulk of squeezed honey is obtained from Apis Dorsata, the rock bee, and bulk of the extracted honey is obtained by Apis Serana Indica (Honey bee).