Dados do Trabalho

Título

INFLUENCE OF THE TYPE OF HONEY ON MEAD: PROFILE OF ORGANIC ACIDS AND PHYSICOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Introdução

Honey has several bioactive and sensorial qualities, but it is still little consumed by the Brazilian population. The honeys from Santa Catarina (Brazil) are excellent in quality and have won six awards for the best honey in the world. To innovate and encourage the consumption of this food, it is possible to produce mead (honey wine). Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of different types of honey on the organic acids profile and physical-chemical characteristics of the mead.

Material e Métodos

Four mead formulations were prepared using different types of honey from Santa Catarina, namely: wildflower honey mead (WM), stingless bee honey mead (SM), orange flower honey mead (OM) and honeydew honey mead (HM). The musts were prepared by diluting honey in water to a total soluble solids (TSS) content of 22 °Brix and fermented at 22°C. The physicochemical analyses conducted included: TSS, pH, total acidity, alcoholic content and profile of aliphatic organic acids (AOA) using capillary electrophoresis. Analysis of variance and Tukey's test were used to identify significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) between samples.

Resultados e Discussão

Concerning TSS contents, OM presented significantly higher content (10,80 ± 0,10°Brix) than WM (10,53 ± 0,10°Brix). The highest pH value (4,11 ± 0,01) and total acidity (52,75 ± 0,64 mEq/L) were observed in the HM sample, a behavior that is also observed in honeydew honey when compared to floral honeys. Nine AOA were identified in the meads, with gluconic acid being the predominant one in all samples, a fact that is also observed in different types of honeys. The AOA profile of SM was the most distinct among the meads in this study, highlighting the higher concentration of lactic, citric and acetic acids.

Conclusão

Corroborating with other studies, it was found that the characteristics of the mead are highly influenced by the type of honey used in fermentation, being one of the most important factors for the quality of the final product. Future research should evaluate the sensory characteristics of these beverages to confirm the potential for developing a new product with Santa Catarina honeys.