Assessing the Effect of Adulteration on Honey and Beeswax Quality and Designing Way of Identification in Oromia
Meseret Gemeda, Taye Negera*
Oromia Agricultural Research Institute, Holeta bee research center, Ethiopia.
Citation :Meseret Gemeda, Taye Negera, "Assessing the Effect of Adulteration on Honey and Beeswax Quality and Designing Way of Identification in Oromia ", International Journal of Research Studies in Biosciences 2017,5(8): 34-39
Adulteration of honey and beeswax is becoming a serious and cross cutting problem in Africa in general and in our country in particular and many methods of analysis are available to detect falsification by carrying out chemical analysis. However, in many developing countries a laboratory analyses is not always available. Therefore, the objectives of the study are to identify materials used for adulteration, characterize physical and chemical properties of adulterated honey and beeswax to develop methods of identifying adulterated hive products (honey and beeswax). The survey were conducted in 7 zone of Oromia region (Jimma, Ilu abbabora, West wollega , East wollega , East Shoa, West shoa, South West Shoa and Addis Ababa. The result show that sugar and animal tallow are the major adulterating material while, boiling of sugar with honey, direct adding of grounded or powder of sugar to the honey and melting animal tallow with wax were major adulterating way for honey and bees wax respectively, market loss, health problem, loss of customer, price reduction and loss of trust were, major problems encountered by producer due to adulteration. Solubility and viscosity of honey and breakability, uniformity and smell of beeswax were found good methods to detect adulteration of honey and beeswax at farm get or market respectively.