HONEY PROBLEMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 143, 18 June 1937, Page 4

HONEY PROBLEMS

RESEARCH WORK

THREE LINES FOLLOWED

For the purpose of assisting the honey industry in New Zealand, research work has been carried out at lhe Cawthron Institute, Nelson, and delegates to the annual conference of the National Beekeepers' Association were given an outline of this work by Mr. R. H. K. Thomson, M.Sc, a member of the staff of the institute. Three lines of investigation, covering pollens, colour grading, and granulation, had been followed, Mr. Thomson said, but a lot more work was still necessary. ■ ■

The more important features of the investigations carried out, said Mr. Thomson, were connected with the chemical examination of a considerable number of New Zealand honeys of different floral sources. These analyses showed that the floral source of the honey resulted in marked difference's in chemical composition. Further work had been done on the laboratory process for the purification of honey, but funds had not been secured,for a semi-commercial trial of the process. However, it was hoped that this could be arranged in. the near future.

The study of New Zealand pollens was carried out to see if the pollen content of honey would serve to identify the origin of honey, Mr. Thomson said. The tests made showed that there was a great variation in. pollen content, and it was hoped that complete data would enable New Zealand honey to be identified as such whatever label it might bear.

Tests had been made in colour grading with the Pfund grader, which compared the colour of honey with a standard amber colour of variable intensity, but fixed tint, and with the tintometer, which measured both the tint and the depth of colour. The former tests were not altogether satisfactory, but if the tintometer were used for grading, it would be possible to assign grading marks for the tint of the honey as well as for the depth of colour. ■ , -.

The investigations into the process of granulation of honey, said Mr. Thomson, had thrown considerable light on the "frosting" of honey, but much more work would have to be done before any definite pronouncement could be made on the exact conditions of its formation.