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A major challenge facing the fresh‐cut industry is maintaining and preserving the quality of minimally processed or fresh‐cut produce. A low temperature regime, although insufficient, has been the main method of overcoming this challenge so far. Thus, methods preserving the quality and extending the shell life of minimally processed or fresh‐cut produce are needed. This paper seeks to propose that honey could be used to preserve the fresh‐like quality of minimally processed pomegranate arils and extend their shelf life.

Manually extracted pomegranate arils were treated with water as control, 10 or 20 per cent diluted honey solution each for five minutes, then held at 4°C for ten days. Changes in organoleptic and visual quality, softening, soluble solids content, pH, absorbance at 446 and 510nm, and total aerobic count were recorded during the ten‐day storage period.

The study found that honey solution dip treatments extended the fresh‐like quality of minimally processed arils by delaying quality loss, microbial development, and pigment changes.

The paper shows that honey dip treatment may be used, depending on commodity, to preserve quality and extend the shelf life of minimally processed or fresh‐cut produce in the food‐processing industry.

The study pays particular attention to minimally processed pomegranate arils, by adapting a potentially safe organic method, the use of honey dips.

Factors involved in the transformation of nectar from flowering plants into honey have been the subject of study. Honey is said to have many beneficial properties and uses. The methods of extracting and purifying it are described, with detail about its components and some of its chemical and physical properties. The effects of storage and methods of packaging are also outlined.

The many sources of honey are listed, with detail abut the contents of different types. Factors influencing the crystallisation of honey, and the causes and effects of fermentation are given. Some uses are also described — in cosmetics, as food, and in pharmacology.

The ideal honey profile for 153 Irish consumers of honey was one with a thick texture, a dark golden colour, made by a small‐scale producer, at a price of IR£1.95 and packaged in a 454g (1lb) plain glass jar. Least squares regression was used to estimate part worths for the conjoint analysis. Using the scale attribute as a basis for segmentation three distinct segments were identified. Market simulation experiments simulated market shares for 11 products; the ideal products for each segment (three in total), two existing mass‐produced honeys, four from small‐scale local farm producers and one from a farm producer produced on a larger scale. The first cluster was the least price sensitive, with the most important attribute being small‐scale producer source. Mass‐produced honeys had a very small market share in this segment. The second cluster was distinguished by deriving a high utility from a light‐coloured honey. Again mass‐produced honeys had the smallest market share. In the first two clusters, in addition to some of the ideal products, honey/s from small‐scale producers had high market shares. The third cluster was the most price sensitive and the mass‐produced honeys commanded their largest market share in this segment. This segment also derived the highest utility of all segments from a honey produced on a mass scale. The results show that adjusting pricing and promotional approaches could increase market share for honey producers.

Characterization of honey gathered importance since it has been widely used in both medical and domestic needs. In this fast moving mechanical life, people are bound to buy commercially available honey at markets. The purpose of this paper is to study the physical and thermal properties of such honey.

Four well‐known commercial honey samples in the Indian market were analyzed for their color, rheology and thermal properties.

Color of the samples varied from white to light amber according to United States Department of Agriculture method. Rheologies of the samples were studied between 10 and 30°C. Viscosities of samples varied from 1.31  to 96.7 Pa s according to the kind of honey and temperature of measurement. Controlled shear rate viscometry indicated the Newtonian behavior with a drop in viscosity as the temperature increases. Differential Scanning Calorimetry analysis indicated the inflection transition temperature (Tg) of the present investigation ranged between –51.40  and –30.64°C. Correlation between the Tg and the viscosity of the samples were significant.

There has been no report available on the Newtonian behavior of the commercial Indian honey samples. This paper will help the consumers to comprehend the standard of the honey sold in the Indian market. Distributors/manufacturers will also be aware of quality of honey, which will help further in the process development, transportation and storage.

This paper utilizes controversies over the role of a set of insecticides in mass honey bee die-offs in two different national contexts – France and the United States – in order to understand the science-state nexus in a comparative manner. On the one hand, the French government in 1999 and 2004 suspended the commercial use of the insecticidal products that beekeepers suspected of causing the honey bee declines. On the other hand, the US government has to date refused to heed beekeepers’ calls to limit the usage of the very same set of insecticides. We examine why the governments of France and the United States came to contrasting conclusions regarding broadly similar technoscientific issues. The divergent outcomes, we argue, are not simply the result of predetermined differences in the two states’ regulatory paradigms (with France being “precautionary,” and the United States adhering to a “sound science” approach), but are underpinned by divergent forms of beekeepers’ resistance. The paper further sheds light on non-state actors’ use of science and state to contest state (in)action by analyzing how historically influenced differences in state structures, the relational dynamics of beekeepers’ and farmers’ organizations, and the epistemic cultures of honey bee knowledge production, shaped different forms of resistance and influence in France and the United States.

The aim of this study was to produce an enriched honey powder with active compounds coming from bee pollen and investigate the effects of bee pollen addition as a carrier material on honey powder.

The effects of bee pollen addition as carrier material in corporation with gum arabic at different ratios (25, 50 and 75% of total carrier material amount) on vacuum-dried honey-bee pollen powder were investigated.

The bee pollen concentration raise in the mixture increased the particle size, total phenolic, flavonoid and sugar contents and antioxidant activity, whereas decreased the Hauser ratio and Carr index values, hygroscopicity and solubility of enriched honey powder samples. The honey powder samples had passable and poor flow properties and very hygroscopic (>20%) structure because of the high sugar content. The phenolic and flavonoid contents of honey powder samples with bee pollen changed between 1531.59 and 3796.00 mg GAE/kg and 424.05–1203.10 mg QE/kg, respectively, and these values were much higher than the control sample. On the basis of linear correlation analysis, there was a very high positive correlation between total phenolic, flavonoid and antioxidant activity, while there was a very high negative correlation between these parameters and solubility.

The study evaluated that enriching of honey powders with pollen, which is a product of both plant and bee origin, rather than enriching with different plant and animal sources has an innovative approach. Additionally, the usage of bee pollen as a carrier agent in food drying has not been previously reported in any study.

The goal of this study is to understand if ethnocentrism exists at the sub-regional level among honey consumers living in the same production area as a protected designation of origin (PDO). Moreover, this analysis explores if ethnocentrism is influenced by individual economic conditions, among other socio-demographic characteristics.

A sample of 725 consumers was collected through the use of a questionnaire that was circulated in the province of Varese, one of the few honey PDO areas in Italy. The authors performed a principal component analysis and a two-step cluster analysis to identify different PDO honey consumer segments, focusing on their interest for PDO attributes.

The authors identified four consumer segments, depending on socio-demographic, consumption habits, frequencies, preferred attributes and preferences for the PDO product. One cluster exhibited strong preferences for the PDO honey, in the spirit of ethnocentrism, and was characterised by low-income levels; ethnocentric preferences were also observed in another cluster that had a different socio-economic profile.

Honey is a niche product and not universally diffused among consumers: further analyses should investigate sub-national ethnocentrism for more universal food products. Yet, through the inspection of the different profiles found, it was possible to devise marketing strategies to boost PDO honey purchasing and to bring consumers closer to PDO products.

This analysis considers ethnocentrism as a segmentation criterion for PDO honey consumers that live in the very same PDO honey production area and enriches the existing literature on the relationship between ethnocentrism and individual economic status.

Honey is a product that has been consumed for thousands of years owing to honey's nutritional value and unique properties. This survey aimed to assess factors affecting consumer behaviour for honey in countries of the Balkans and Western Europe, on a comparative basis.

The high importance of honey consumption along with findings from previous surveys on consumer behaviour are included in the introduction chapter. Based on these, and focussing on the fundamental consumer behaviour theories (stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, theory of planned behaviour (TPB), and health belief model (HBM)), a questionnaire was designed and answered by 2,113 individuals from the Balkans and Western Europe, of which 2,088 were honey consumers. Principal component analysis (PCA) analysis was used to interpret the results.

According to the analysis, both Western Europeans and Balkans consume honey weekly, whilst only a few consume honey daily. A crucial difference between the two samples is that Western Europeans consider honey to be an expensive product, whilst Balkans considers honey's price acceptable. In general, men consume more honey than women, and households with children purchase honey more often and in more significant quantities. In conclusion, the main reason affecting European honey consumption is the health impact, which is related to therapeutic properties and high nutritional value of honey.

PCA results clarified the factors affecting honey consumption, whilst at the same time, consumer profiles of Balkan and Western European consumers were outlined and compared with each other, outlining a more detailed description of honey consumption in Europe.

Apart from highlighting the overall nutritional value of honey, this review draws attention to the potential importance of the oligosaccharide content of honey. The possible role of these compounds as prebiotics is emphasised, for a number of them have been found to stimulate species of Bifidobacterium that inhabit the human colon. It is suggested that the therapeutic properties of the anti‐oxidants in honey could be equally relevant, and the desirability of the growing practice of adding royal jelly to retail products is discussed briefly.