Mineral analysis of mono-floral New Zealand honey

Leo P Vanhanen; Andrea Emmertz; Geoffrey P Savage

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.02.064

Mineral analysis of mono-floral New Zealand honey

Food Chem. 2011 Sep 1;128(1):236-40. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.02.064. Epub 2011 Feb 20.

Authors

Leo P Vanhanen¹, Andrea Emmertz², Geoffrey P Savage³

Affiliations

¹ Food Group, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand. Electronic address: leo.vanhanen@lincoln.ac.nz.
² Department of Food Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
³ Food Group, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.

PMID: 25214355
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.02.064

Abstract

The levels of 18 different minerals in ten locally produced mono-floral honeys (clover, honeydew, kāmahi, mānuka, nodding thistle, rātā, rewarewa, tāwari, thyme and viper's bugloss honey) were determined, as well as moisture content, pH, conductivity and colour. The most abundant minerals were potassium, phosphorus and calcium, ranging between 34.8-3640, 29.5-255 and 7.21-94.3mg/kg, respectively. Potassium made up 73% of the total mineral content. There was a large range of mean total mineral contents, with honeydew honey having the highest level (4060mg/kg) and viper's bugloss honey the lowest (126mg/kg). Honeydew had more than twice the mean total mineral contents than kāmahi, the next highest. The heavy metal contents (Cd, Pb and Zn) of the mono-floral honey types investigated were very low. A strong positive relationship between mean conductivity and total mineral content (r(2)=0.973), and pH and total mineral content (r(2)=0.776) was observed in this study.

Keywords: Colour; Conductivity; Mineral content; Mono-floral honey; pH.