Physicochemical and Rheological Properties of Romanian Honeys

The purpose of this work was to investigate the physicochemical and rheological properties of Romanian honey, and particularly to analyze the influence of moisture content, °Brix concentration and temperature. All the samples were characterized to determine their physicochemical (moisture, °Brix, pH, ash, conductivity, colour, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural content, sugar content, diastase activity) and bioactive (antioxidant activity, total phenols content and total flavonoids content) parameters. All the investigated honeys displayed Newtonian behaviour at all temperatures. Four experimental viscosity models were checked using the experimental data to correlate the influence of temperature upon honey viscosity; The William-Landel-Ferry model was much suitable than Power Law, Arrhenius and Vogel-Taumman-Fulcher models for temperature-viscosity modelling. By using the polynomial modeling method, it was possible to develop a mathematical model to describe honey viscosity in the function of temperature and chemical composition. The model achieved, developed from the viscosity, temperature and chemical composition allows predicting the evolution of the dynamic viscosity.