CHALLENGES OF THE XXI CENTURY" NUR-SULTAN, KAZAKHSTAN, JULY 2019 342
bee. Bees process nectar, which they collect from flowers of melliferous plants into honey in a
multistage process. In this work provided analysis of honey samples pH originated from Kazakhstan and
Kyrgyzstan, named «Kamennyi (Stony) ».
Keywords: honey, classification of honey, honey market, worldwide honey production,
physico-chemical analysis.
Introduction pH shows acid/alkaline balance of solution, but not acidity or alkalinity separately.
pH is measured in degrees of number 10. Concentration of hydrogen ions in solution with
pH 1.0 is 10 times higher, than concentration of hydrogen ions in solution with pH 2.0.
When the concentration of hydrogen ions is higher, the pH is lower
when pH > 7 solution is alkalinity (main);
when pH < 7 solution is acidity.
According to Horn and Lyullmann (2007), value of a hydrogen indicator for all samples
of honey indicates their sour reaction: the maximum value рН was 5,12, minimum – 3,46, the
average was – 3,96 units рН.
In European countries the pH-value of honeys varies between 3.5 and 5.5 depending on
the organic acids in the honey (Bogdanov et al., 2004). It has high importance for honey flavour
and preventing microbiological spoilage during storage. Low pH raises the honey shelf life
while a high pH demonstrates that there is sugar fermentation into organic acids in the honey
(Khalil et al., 2012; Terrab et al., 2002).
The International Honey Commission (IHC) has proposed 50 mEq as the maximum
permitted acidity in honeys. Honey with pH values of more than 5 may be considered of low
quality and purity (ur-Rehman et al., 2008) and on the contrary, honey with lower pH values
may be considered of better quality and purity.
The variance of pH-value is partly dependent on the honey floral origin, which is alows
for discrimination classification of unifloral honeys (Bogdanov et al., 2004), for example, pH of
rape honey is typically 4.1, heather honey pH is 4.2 and pH of dandelion honey is 4.5 (Persano
Oddo and Piro, 2004).