There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
<p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="first" dir="auto"
id="d17970389e91">Honey is a natural food of worldwide economic importance. Over the
last decades, its
potential for food, medical, cosmetical, and biotechnological applications has been
widely explored. One of the major safety issues regarding such applications is its
susceptibility to being contaminated with bacterial and fungi spores, including pathogenic
ones, which may impose a hurdle to its consumption in a raw state. Another factor
that makes this product particularly challenging relies on its high sugar content,
which will lead to the formation of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) when heated (due to
Maillard reactions). Moreover, honey's bioactivity is known to be affected when it
goes through thermal processing due to its unstable and thermolabile components. Therefore,
proper food processing methodologies are of utmost importance not only to ensure honey
safety but also to provide a high-quality product with low content of HMF and preserved
biological properties. As so, emerging food processing technologies have been employed
to improve the safety and quality of raw honey, allowing, for example, to reduce/avoid
the exposure time to high processing temperatures, with consequent impact on the formation
of HMF. This review aims to gather the literature available regarding the use of conventional
and emergent food processing technologies (both thermal and nonthermal food processing
technologies) for honey decontamination, preservation/enhancement of honey biological
activity, as well as the sensorial attributes.
</p>