The Hindu Business Line : Dabur Honey ranked `best buy'

THE Ahmedabad-based Consumer Education and Research Society (CERS) has ranked Dabur Honey as the best buy after conducting tests on 17 brands of honey in its in-house laboratory.

Dabur Honey scored the highest in both flavour and after-taste. The test-findings were published in the CERS' in-house magazine, Insight. The CERS tested 17 brands of honey, purchased from across the country and two loose samples - L1 and L2 - from the city.

Apart from Dabur, the brands tested were Amrut, Baidyanath, Brij, Dhanvantari, Himalayan, Hyness, Indian, KVIC Cochin, KVIC Mumbai, Madh Sagar, Madhur, Mehsons, Pushp, Samskrithamadhu, Shreejee and West Bengal Bee Keeper's Association (WBBKA).

Of these, Mehsons was rated the second best. The brands were tested against the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the Agricultural Produce Grading and Marking Act (Agmark). Results were compared against the international standard, Codex Alimentarius. Shreejee (9.1), Indian (11.4), L1 (9.9) and Madhur (13.1), did not confirm to the parameters of maximum limit of five per cent sucrose content. A high sucrose content indicates artificial feeding of bees with sugar or adulteration of honey with sugar solution. Commercial invert sugar is also used as an adulterating agent, to which L2 tested positive. The presence of a high amount of hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) - which should not be more than 80 mg per kilo, otherwise indicates poor quality, was found in Amrut (82), Baidyanath (191), Brij (145), Himalayan (396), KVIC Cochin (240), KVIC Mumbai (311), Madh Sagar (316), Pushp (148), Shreejee (93), L1 (385) and L2 (654).

With a low fructose-glucose ratio, honey forms granules or crystals faster instead of retaining its fluidity. Madhur (0.98) did not conform to the IS which requires a ratio of not less than one. The samples gave energy in the range of 284-315 kilocalories per 100 grams of honey. Madhur, Samskrithamadhu and the WBBKA, which did not carry a label on the bottle with date of packing, lot number and net weight, did not print the best before date. Agmark brands Dhanvantari and Himalayan did not mention the grade of honey on the label. One sample each of Brij, Himalayan, KVIC Cochin and Madhur gave weight less than the minimum permissible limit as per the standards of Weights and Measures (Packaged Commodities) Rules.

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