Aplicação de mel de abelhas africanizadas (Apis mellifera L.) de diferentes origens florais na elaboração de fermentados acéticos

Abstract

Honey is considered a natural product with high nutritional value. The literature presents several scientific studies pointing to the benefits that honey offers to human health, but despite this fact the productive chain of honey bees in Brazil is still incipient. Vinegar is a natural product obtained by acetylation of wine and has long been used by man as a medicament and/or flavoring. Currently there is a great potential for the industrialization of this product using the honey as a raw material. Thus, this work aimed to characterize honey samples, from honeydew, eucalyptus and orange and submit them the alcoholic and acetic fermentation in order to obtain fermented honey by acetic Orleans method. The analysis which the honey samples were submitted showed up within the standard required by Brazilian law guaranteeing the quality of the raw material. Among the samples, the honeydew resulted in better quality vinegar, with high levels of phenolic compounds, antioxidant activity and fulfillment of all quality requirements set by the Normative Ruling N°. 6 of April 3, 2012 of the Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Supply which established the Identity and Quality Standards and Classification of Fermented Acetic. It was concluded that the different multiplicity of secondary compounds from the nectar and the bees themselves, interfere in the ability of honey to suffer the acetic fermentation process, being necessary to improve the technology in relation to the operational parameters employed for the acetic fermentation of honey unifloral.