SENSORY CHARACTERISTICS EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT HONEYS OF DIFFERENT HONEY BEE SPECIES FROM HIMACHAL PRADESH AND ADJOINING STATES OF HARYANAAND PUNJAB

摘要

Sensory characteristic evaluation of 58 honey samples from Himachal Pradesh and adjoining states of Haryana and Punjab was made. The average scores given in the sensory evaluation for colour, taste, aroma, flavour, consistency, absence of defects andoverall quality of honey were 14.14, 13.56, 13.19, 13.37, 15.08, 14.72 and 13.36, respectively, for the honeys from A. mellifera; 14.08,13.68,12.63,13.48,15.53,13.98 and 13.88, respectively, in the honeys of A cerana; 10.08,10.60, 9.48,10.40,10.96,12.90and 11.16, respectively, in the honeys from A. florea; 11.43, 11.74, 12.73, 12.23, 13.23, 11.13 and 12.33, respectively, in the honeys from A. dorsata and 11.68,12.02, 9.38,10.70, 9.00,12.80 and 11.30, respectively in the market samples of honeys. Thesefindings can be used to distinguish artificial honey from natural honey by their sensory characters and can be of greater use to consumers as well as to beekeepers.