FILTERED HONEY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 122, 9 June 1937, Page 15

FILTERED HONEY

Causes Improvement in Flavour A way of eliminating undesirable colonrs and flavours from honey has been aiscovered, according to the annual feport of the Gawthxon Institute. It states that work in this direction has been the most important activity in honey research at the institute. A considexable quantity of honey pxoduoed in Hew Zealand is. affected by kamahi, ragworth, manuka and other bitter or undesirable flavours, and in addition the colour of such honeys is frequently too dark, therehy greatly depreciating them in the eyes of coqsuiuers." After a long series of laboratory experiments, a porcedure has been worked out by which flavours and colours can be almost completely elirainated. The method is filtration. -It is estimated that the treating of low-grade honey should be coxumercially successful, bqt lack of finance has prevented the testing of the laboratoty proeess on a semicommercial scale. Other investigations have been into the chemical composition of New Zealand honeys, particularly the sucrose content. More recent studies have been commenced with the object of elucidnting the cause of "frosting," which defeet appears to be connected with the sizs pf dextrose crystals.