TOPHONEY

Enhancing the quality attributes of processed honey and avoiding its crystallisation by the application of a non-thermal treatment process

Coordinatore	FISA IBERICA SL    more  Organization address address: DELS FARGAIRES 2B city: CERDANYOLA DEL VALLES- Barcelona postcode: 8290 contact info Titolo: Mr. Nome: Joan Cognome: Bosch Graells Email: send email Telefono: 34935801085 Fax: 34935802964
Nazionalità Coordinatore	Spain [ES]
Totale costo	2˙125˙840 €
EC contributo	1˙607˙748 €
Programma	FP7-SME Specific Programme "Capacities": Research for the benefit of SMEs
Code Call	FP7-SME-2008-2
Funding Scheme	BSG-SME-AG
Anno di inizio	2010
Periodo (anno-mese-giorno)	2010-01-01   -   2013-06-30

 Partecipanti

#	participant	country	role	EC contrib. [€]
1	FISA IBERICA SL  Organization address address: DELS FARGAIRES 2B city: CERDANYOLA DEL VALLES- Barcelona postcode: 8290 contact info Titolo: Mr. Nome: Joan Cognome: Bosch Graells Email: send email Telefono: 34935801085 Fax: 34935802964	ES (CERDANYOLA DEL VALLES- Barcelona)	coordinator	233˙860.96
2	ASOCIACION CULTURAL VALLE DE HISTORIA Y MIEL  Organization address address: PLAZA DIPUTACION PROVINCIAL 1-1 city: AYORA postcode: 46620 contact info Titolo: Ms. Nome: Mº Teresa Cognome: Pastor Hernandez Email: send email Telefono: 34961890345 Fax: 34961890345	ES (AYORA)	participant	270˙628.38
3	T3 ENGINEERING BV*T3  Organization address address: WILLEM DE VRIES ROBBEWEG 3 city: GORINCHEM postcode: 4206 AK contact info Titolo: Mr. Nome: Gert Cognome: Huisman Email: send email Telefono: 31183403644 Fax: 31183403371	NL (GORINCHEM)	participant	228˙297.87
4	Federacao Nacional dos Apicultores de Portugal  Organization address city: Lisboa postcode: 1549-012 LISBOA contact info Titolo: Mr. Nome: Joao Diogo Cognome: Guanilho De Freitas Casaca Email: send email Telefono: +351 217100084 Fax: +351 217000084	PT (Lisboa)	participant	210˙144.70
5	NATIONAL BEE BRANCH ASSOCIATION  Organization address address: SQ 1 MACEDONIA OFFICE 3 city: SOFIA postcode: 1000 contact info Titolo: Mr. Nome: Plamen Cognome: Ivanov Email: send email Telefono: 35924010610 Fax: 3592917410	BG (SOFIA)	participant	209˙073.70
6	Sociedad Cooperativa Apicola de Espana  Organization address address: POLIGONO INDUSTRIAL SAN ANTON city: AYORA postcode: 46620 contact info Titolo: Mr. Nome: Felix Cognome: Campos Email: send email Telefono: 34982191175 Fax: 34961890075	ES (AYORA)	participant	203˙100.10
7	SYNE scrl  Organization address city: MONTLEBAN postcode: 6674 contact info Titolo: Mr. Nome: José Cognome: Syne Email: send email Telefono: 32497036213 Fax: 3280510037	BE (MONTLEBAN)	participant	193˙852.90
8	ATEKNEA SOLUTIONS CATALONIA, SA  Organization address address: CALLE VICTOR PRADERA 45 city: CORNELLA DE LLOBREGAT BARCELONA postcode: 8940 contact info Titolo: Ms. Nome: Irene Cognome: Larroy Email: send email Telefono: 34932049922 Fax: 34932049866	ES (CORNELLA DE LLOBREGAT BARCELONA)	participant	30˙004.80
9	NPL MANAGEMENT LIMITED  Organization address address: SERCO HOUSE 16 BARTLEY WOOD - BUSINESS PARK BARTLEY WAY 16 city: HOOK - HAMPSHIRE postcode: RG27 9UY contact info Titolo: Ms. Nome: Paula Cognome: Goodwin Email: send email Telefono: 442089000000 Fax: 442089000000	UK (HOOK - HAMPSHIRE)	participant	21˙453.43
10	ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS  Organization address address: Administration Building, University Campus city: THESSALONIKI postcode: 54124 contact info Titolo: Ms. Nome: Kalliopi Cognome: Nakou Email: send email Telefono: 302311000000 Fax: 302311000000	EL (THESSALONIKI)	participant	7˙332.00

Mappa

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Crystallised honey is granular, opaque and highly viscous. Crystallisation is a natural phenomenon, and usually takes place within a few weeks after extracting the honey from the honeycomb: however most consumers prefer clear liquid honey. Crystallization arises due to the presence of glucose micro-crystals and air bubbles in the honey. Commercial honey processing currently uses pasteurisation equipment (often with a vacuum applied) to flash-heat the honey to dissolve the micro-crystals and remove air bubbles, and thus delay crystallisation to 12 months post-processing. However, pasteurisation heats the honey to around 80ï‚°C, which degrades the heat sensitive components of honey: primarily the diastase and invertase enzymes, and also raises HMF content (a honey quality parameter, subject to international standard limits). To address the needs identified by project SME-AGs, the TOPHONEY project will develop a novel honey processing system, based on the use of high-power ultrasound, as non-thermal alternative, to delay the onset of crystallisation, whilst preserving the natural quality attributes of the unprocessed honey. SME-AG members plan to exploit these benefits to sell their honey at a premium price, and also overcome yield limitations of vacuum pasteurisation methods.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Researchers have designed a new way to pasteurise honey without compromising its nutritional value or quality.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Honey crystallisation is a natural process that occurs over time, but many consumers associate it with low-quality or 'off' honey. Unfortunately, pasteurisation, which has been used for years to prevent crystallisation, destroys naturally occurring vitamins and nutrients in honey, and generally reduces the quality.

The EU-funded http://www.tophoney.eu (TOPHONEY) project worked to solve this problem by developing a heat-free alternative to honey processing. They endeavoured to build an ultrasound-based system that would prevent honey crystallisation without affecting its nutritional value.

TOPHONEY first identified the most important honey quality factors, and developed the protocols needed to measure them. Factors included hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), which is an indicator of excessive heat treatment in honey, enzymes that are destroyed during pasteurisation and glucose crystal size.

Two laboratory prototype systems for honey processing were built and tested using various sources of honey and different operating conditions. These provided the information needed to build an industrial-scale system.

The resulting industrial prototype was then run in parallel with conventional honey pasteurisation to compare its efficacy. The TOPHONEY prototype did not affect HMF concentration, barely degraded the enzymes in the honey and reduced glucose crystals to the same extent.

As such, the TOPHONEY project was successful in creating a system to replace the pasteurisation of honey without impacting on honey quality. Overall, this will result in better-quality honey for European consumers.