CHARACTERIZATION OF HONEYS FROM DIFFERENT FLORAL ORIGINS

Floral origin is an important factor for the quality of honey, as it affects its composition and, consequently, its rheological behavior. In this context, the objective of the work was to evaluate the moisture content and flow profile of honeys from different floral origins (assa-peixe, coffee, eucalyptus, gurucaia and silvestre), obtained in São Lourenço/MG. The moisture content was determined using a portable refractometer (model RT 280, Instrutherm, SP, Brazil). The rheological behavior was evaluated in a rotational viscometer with concentric cylinders (spindle SC4-25), using a shear rate ranging from 0.44 to 4.84 s-1. The Newton, Power Law and Herschel Bulkley models were used to determine the fluid flow profiles. Both analyzes were performed in triplicate at 25°C and the results were evaluated using the SAS University Edition software. The average moisture content of the honeys ranged from 17.33% (coffee) to 19.47% (wild), suggesting that all samples had good maturation and were within the maximum limit (20g/100g) allowed by legislation (BRAZIL, 2000). Regarding rheology, it was found that the three models analyzed presented good adjustments to the results (R2≥0.994 and RMSE<2.486). All honeys exhibited a Newtonian flow profile, in addition, coffee honey had the highest viscosity (21.86 ± 0.13 Pa.s), while Silvestre honey proved to be the least viscous (5.24 ± 0.06 Pa.s) compared to the others. These results can be explained by the significant differences in moisture contents between the samples, since a higher moisture content implies a greater dilution of the solids present in the food matrices, contributing to a reduction in the viscosity of the fluid. Therefore, it is concluded that the different floral origins produced different honeys in terms of moisture content, which contributed to the variation in the viscosity of the samples, which is an important parameter of product acceptability.