Honey Quality Standard

Water content on the honey can affect to reducing sugars, sucrose, acidity, ash, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and diastase activity are the seven honey standards chosen here to contrast differences between genuine A. mellifera honey and honey from the Meliponinae genera Melipona, Scaptotrigona and Trigona.

• Water content for Meliponinae honey should increase the maximum limit of 20 g/100 g allowed for A. mellifera up to 30 g/100 g. 
• The standard for reducing sugar should decrease the maximum limit of 65 g/100 g for A. mellifera down to 50 g/100 g.
• For sucrose the A. mellifera honey standard has a maximum limit of 5 g/100 g. There is a difference between the three Melipona and Trigona a higher maximum limit of 6 g/100 g is suggested, whereas for Scaptotrigona a lower maximum limit of 2 g/100 g is proposed.
• The acidity of stingless bee honey is very high compared with A. mellifera, which is also detected in the flavor. 
• The Ash content and HMF can be kept the same as for A. mellifera, with a maximum of 0.5 g ash/100 g honey for all genera.

Standard for stingless bee honeys, compared with official codex Allimentarius Commision standards for Apis mellifera honey.

Honey Composition	Apis Mellifera	Melipona	Scaptotrigona	Trigona
Sucrose (g/100 g)	min 65.0	min 50.0	min 50.0	min 50.0
Acidity (meq/100 g)	max 5.0	max 6.0	max 2.0	max 6.0
Ash (g/100 g)	max 40.0	max 70.0	max 85.0	max 75.0
HMF (mg/kg)max 5.0	max 0.5	max 5.0	max 0.5	max 0.5
Distase activity (DN)	min 8.0	min 3.0	min 3.0	min 7.0