Honey crystallization: Mechanism, evaluation and application

Abstract

Crystallization of honey is a natural phenomenon, and it also gives the authenticity of honey. But most of the consumers consider crystallization as adulteration of honey. Crystallization process will not cause any change in nutritional value if honey is properly crystallized, but improper crystallization will lead to increase in water activity and thus leading to fermentation. It is a desired phenomenon in the production of creamed honey, a spread that is becoming popular among the consumers. The factors that influence crystallization include F/G ratio, G/W ratio, presence of crystallization centers and storage temperature. There are several methods to evaluate crystallization in honey including DSC, NMR, molecular dynamics etc. Crystallization being an undesired phenomenon, there are several methods to prevent it such as heating honey or storing at low temperature, ultrasound treatment, filtration, ultrafiltration. There are latest studies focusing on the addition of certain food additives also lowers crystallization rate.

Full text

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The Pharma Innovation Journal 2021; SP-10(5): 222-231
ISSN (E): 2277- 7695
ISSN (P): 2349-8242
NAAS Rating: 5.23
TPI 2021; SP-10(5): 222-231
© 2021 TPI
www.thepharmajournal.com
Received: 18-02-2021
Accepted: 03-04-2021
Reshma Krishnan
Department of Food Technology
and Nutrition, School of
Agriculture, Lovely Professional
University, Phagwara, Punjab,
India
Thasniya Mohammed
Department of Food Technology
and Nutrition, School of
Agriculture, Lovely Professional
University, Phagwara, Punjab,
India
Gopika S Kumar
Department of Food Technology
and Nutrition, School of
Agriculture, Lovely Professional
University, Phagwara, Punjab,
India
Arunima SH
Department of Food Technology
and Nutrition, School of
Agriculture, Lovely Professional
University, Phagwara, Punjab,
India
Corresponding Author:
Reshma Krishnan
Department of Food Technology
and Nutrition, School of
Agriculture, Lovely Professional
University, Phagwara, Punjab,
India
Honey crystallization: Mechanism, evaluation and
application
Reshma Krishnan, Thasniya Mohammed, Gopika S Kumar and Arunima SH
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/tpi.2021.v10.i5Sd.6213
Abstract
Crystallization of honey is a natural phenomenon, and it also gives the authenticity of honey. But most of
the consumers consider crystallization as adulteration of honey. Crystallization process will not cause any
change in nutritional value if honey is properly crystallized, but improper crystallization will lead to
increase in water activity and thus leading to fermentation. It is a desired phenomenon in the production
of creamed honey, a spread that is becoming popular among the consumers. The factors that influence
crystallization include F/G ratio, G/W ratio, presence of crystallization centres and storage temperature.
There are several methods to evaluate crystallization in honey including DSC, NMR, molecular
dynamics etc. Crystallization being an undesired phenomenon, there are several methods to prevent it
such as heating honey or storing at low temperature, ultrasound treatment, filtration, ultrafiltration. There
are latest studies focussing on the addition of certain food additives also lowers crystallization rate.
Keywords: Honey, crystallization, creamed honey, DSC, NMR, molecular dynamics
1. Introduction
Honey is the most important product of bee keeping and is the natural sweet substance
produced by honeybees from the nectar of flowering plants which is transformed by them in
the honeycomb (Codex Alimentarius, 2001) [12]. Honey is an intermediate moisture food (IMF)
having a moisture content in the range of approximately 16-18% and water activity (aw) of 0.6
(Fig 1), these properties along with the high osmotic environment do not support microbial
growth thus making honey shelf stable (Machado De-Melo et al., 2018) [39].
Any solute present in a solvent above its saturation will crystallize out, same is the case of
honey (Shafiq et al., 2012) [55]. Crystallization is a natural process because of honeys
supersaturated nature. The supersaturated solution is mainly composed of a complex mixture
of carbohydrates (Saxena et al., 2010) [53]. Glucose is the principal component that crystallizes
in honey as it exists in a supersaturated state (Costa et al., 2015) [14]. Glucose precipitates as
glucose monohydrate during crystallization (Berk et al., 2021; Shafiq et al., 2012; Zamora and
Chirife, 2006) [6, 55, 0]. The process in which crystalline lattice structure is formed from the
liquid phase is crystallization. Crystallization involves four steps which includes generation of
supersaturated or supercooled state, nucleation–formation of crystalline lattice structure,
growth-increase in the size of nuclei until the equilibrium phase volume is reached and
recrystallization–reorganization of the crystalline structure to lower the free energy further
(Bund and Hartel, 2010; Hartel, 2013) [10, 26].
Nucleation is of two types: primary and secondary. In primary nucleation, there is absence of
pre-formed crystals and for the formation of new nuclei, it must overcome an energy barrier
whereas secondary nucleation occurs only in the presence of pre-formed crystals. The guided
or induced static crystallization follows secondary nucleation principle i.e., seed crystals are
introduced to the system to act as primary crystallization nuclei. The problem with this type is
that it can lead to unpredictable changes in texture and cause crystallization defects (Dettori et
al., 2018; Tappi et al., 2019) [15, 61]. Dynamic crystallization is the process of performing
guided crystallization with slow manual or automatic stirring. This process will produce a
spreadable and creamy product of honey (Tappi et al., 2019, 2021) [60, 61].
Crystallization of honey affects the shelf life as the non-crystallized portion of honey will
contain higher moisture content, which makes it vulnerable to yeast growth. The rate of
nucleation and crystal growth is dependent on temperature. Crystallization also occurs faster at
lower temperatures.

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Honey stored at very low i.e. -20°C and close to ambient
(20°C)temperatures results in fine crystals and coarse grains,
respectively. While storing it in mild temperature range (4-
10°C) results in mixed size crystals. Lower temperature
resulted in small crystal sizes due to limited mobility of the
molecules (Costa et al., 2015) [14]. Zamora and Chirife (2006)
[0] reported that the optimum temperature for crystallization is
between 10 and 15°C.
The crystallization process will not alter the chemical or
nutritional value, it is still less valued and to retard
crystallization honey is heated. Uncontrolled crystallization
during storage makes the product cloudy and is not desired by
consumers (Conforti et al., 2006) [13]. The higher the heating
temperature longer the crystallization will be under control.
But heating influences the taste and the enzyme content
(Costa et al., 2015) [14]. Crystallization is an undesirable
property in handling, processing, and marketing, except for
the production of creamed honey. Controlled crystallization
helps in attaining product of better quality and extended shelf-
life (Hartel, 2013) [26]. In honey, controlled crystallization is
carried out to improve sensory and physical properties of the
regular (natural) honey thus attaining spreadable character
(Suriwong et al., 2020) [59]. This product is called as creamed
honey (Conforti et al., 2006; Subramanian et al., 2007) [13, 58].
The process of crystallization is shown in Fig 2.
Fig 1: Composition of a) Honeydew honey b) Blossom honey (Bogdanov, 2016) [9]
Fig 2: Process of induced honey crystallization (Dettori et al., 2018; Dyce, 1931) [15, 17]
An interesting point to note is that in normal circumstances,
honey does not crystallize in the comb. According to certain
literature, in the capped cell of the comb, honey
crystallization is inhibited because the comb provides an
environment that protects it from moisture, dust and other
contaminants (Bhandari et al., 1999) [7]. This review focusses
on the factors that affect crystallization, methods for
evaluating crystallization, various methods to prevent
crystallization along with other aspects of crystallization.
2. Factors affecting crystallization
Crystallization of honey is a complex phenomenon and is a
property of interest among beekeepers, processors, and honey
handlers. Parameters that influence this property is the

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composition and rheology of various honey (Bhandari et al.,
1999; Conforti et al., 2006) [7, 13]. Based in the floral source,
climatic region, environmental conditions and bee handling
practices, the composition of honey varies from sample to
sample. Crystallization occurs faster when the honey is
distributed i.e., by shaking, stirring, and agitation (Grégrová
et al., 2015; Rybak-Chmielewska, 2003) [24, 52]. Faster
crystallization rate was reported for sunflower, cotton and
clover honey; slow rate for citrus, chestnut and thyme and
very slow rate for vetch honey (Hamdan, 2010) [25]. Table 1
shows certain factors affecting crystallization.
Table 1: Various factors affecting crystallization
Factors
No
granulation
Slow
granulation
Fast granulation
References
Glucose (%)
<27.7
-
>35
Bhandari et al. (1999) [7]
G/W ratio
>1.58
>1.33
<1.11
Escuredo et al. (2014) [21]; Dobre et al. (2012) [16]; Manikis
and Thrasivoulou, (2001) [40]
F/G ratio
-
<1.17
>2.0
Escuredo et al. (2014) [21]; Dobre et al. (2012) [16]; Venir et
al. (2010) [64]; Smanalieva and Senge, (2009) [56]
Temperature
-
-
At -20°C moisture content influenced
the crystallization rate
Conforti et al. (2006) [13]
10-15°C
Berk et al. (2021) [6]; Dettori et al. (2018) [15]; Elhamid and
Abou-Shaara, (2016) [20]; Costa et al. (2015) [14]; Zamora
and Chirife, (2006) [0]
2.1 Fructose: Glucose ratio (F/G)
The time for honey crystallization is dependent mainly upon
the F/G ratio. Samples having the ratio greater than 1.58 has
no tendency for crystallization (Venir et al., 2010) [64], and
that with value greater than 1.33 does not crystallize for a
long time (slow crystallization) (Dobre et al., 2012) [16],
whereas samples with the ratio less than 1.11 crystallizes
quickly (Escuredo et al., 2014; Smanalieva and Senge, 2009)
[21, 56]. Due to higher content of less soluble glucose blossom
honey crystallize faster. In honeydew honey crystallization is
slow this is due to the presence of higher fructose and less
glucose. But some honeydew honey has higher amount of
crystal forming trehalose and melezitose (Grégrová et al.,
2015; Dobre et al., 2012) [16, 24]. Fructose has higher solubility
and it stays in the solution whereas glucose crystallizes fast
and is converted to glucose monohydrate (Laos et al., 2011)
[34]. Al-jouri et al. (2019) [2] found that F/G ratio was the
major factor influencing crystallization in Syrian honey
(Southern and Central region).
Escuredo et al. (2014) [21] found that faster crystallization
takes place when the honey has a lower F/G ratio and water
content. The results from the study demonstrated that the
main factors that influence crystallization are fructose,
glucose, moisture content and sugar ratio (F+G, F/G and
G/W). The botanical source of honey also influences its F/G
ratio. Rape and sunflower honey had the highest reducing
sugar content (F+G), honeydew honey had the lowest. A high
glucose content and low F/G ratio will make honey crystallize
more rapidly as in case of rape and sunflower honey. Honey
with a higher F/G ratio (i.e., containing less than 30%
glucose) crystallizes quite slowly, like acacia, eucalyptus,
honeydew, bramble, heather, and chestnut honeys. In the
study on Estonian honey, Laos et al. (2011) [34] found that F/G
ratio is the most important parameter that influence rate of
crystallization. They also concluded that the due to the release
of water after glucose crystallization will result in an increase
in water activity (aw). Due to the formation of crystal
structures the viscosity of honey increases.
2.2 Glucose: Water ratio (G/W)
Rate of glucose crystallization depends on G/W ratio. Higher
the glucose and lower the water content faster is
crystallization. Honey samples having G/W ratio less than 1.7
exhibits slow crystallization, but when the ratio was greater
than 2.0, crystallization was fast and complete (Escuredo et
al., 2014; Dobre et al., 2012; Manikis and Thrasivoulou,
2001) [16, 21, 40]. Physical properties of honey such as viscosity,
rheological properties, crystallization etc. are affected by the
water content. Sunflower honey has the highest moisture
content. G/W ratio of rape honey was 2.0 which is higher than
that of eucalyptus, honeydew, heather, and chestnut honey.
The ratio G/W is one of the most useful index to predict
granulation as it gave accurate prediction in 68% of
international and 93% of Greek honeys (Manikis and
Thrasivoulou, 2001) [40]. Thus, from many studies it was
found that G/W ratio is a better measure of honey
crystallization (El Sohaimy et al., 2015; Dobre et al., 2012;
Amir et al., 2010; Manikis and Thrasivoulou, 2001) [4, 16, 19, 40].
2.3 Presence of crystallization centres
The presence of crystallization centres in honey mainly pollen
grains also helps in crystallization to occur. Even though
crystallization is influenced by many factors, study by
Grégrová et al. (2015) [24] found that absolute pollen count (a
qualitative parameter) positively correlated with the
crystallization degree. The crystal size is determined by the
number of crystallization centres present. When
crystallization is faster, presence of higher number of nuclei,
higher will be the crystals with less size. Slow granulation
leads to the production of thick crystals with non-compact
structure and a fast crystallization leads to fine crystallization
with compact structure (Machado De-Melo et al., 2018) [39].
3. Products of honey crystallization
A variety of honey-based products are available such as
granulated honey, creamed honey, co-crystallized honey etc.
which can be a replacer of natural honey. These are also the
products of honey crystallization which are accepted by the
consumers (Umesh Hebbar et al., 2008) [63]. If honey is
properly crystallized even at room temperature it spreads like
butter and it does not drip. The pasteurization and proper
control of temperature during crystallization creates properly
crystallized honey (Dyce, 1975) [18].
3.1 Granulated honey
Controlled crystallization can be employed to produce
granulated honey. Dyce method is used to produce fine honey
crystals having smooth consistency. Honey is heated twice at
49 and 66°C and starter nuclei is added. After processing
granulated honey with spreadable consistency is obtained.
Various methods employing new nuclei have been developed
for producing granulated honey. The crystals must be small

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such that it cannot be detected by the tongue and it must be
stable when kept at room temperature. By Dyce method, it is
generally prepared by the addition of seed crystals i.e.,
properly ground granulated honey 5-10% (w/w) which
initiates crystal growth. The sample was kept at 14°C until
complete crystallization (Chen et al., 2009; Dyce, 1975) [11,
18].
Chen et al. (2009) [11] developed crystallized honey by using a
new seed material. The new nuclei were 0.1% (w/w) glucose
powder instead of the natural seed. Litchi honey was
pasteurised at 60°C for 30min and then cooled to room
temperature under running water for 1hr. Anhydrous D-
glucose powder was added to the pasteurised sample at a
concentration of 0.1% (w/w) and blended. The sample was
stored in glass jar at 14°C until it is completely crystallized
and after crystallization the honey was kept at room
temperature. To maintain proper spreadability, the sample
must be stored at 11-30°C.
3.2 Creamed honey
Controlled crystallization of honey produces fine crystals and
the product formed is creamed honey (Umesh Hebbar et al.,
2008) [63]. The creamed honey is a desired product of honey
crystallization which can be used as a spread. When honey
was crystallized by the addition of 0.1% glucose powder, it
produced good quality creamed honey with desired
spreadability (Chen et al., 2009) [11].
Elhamid and Abou-Shaara, (2016) [20] developed creamed
honey from cotton and clover honey by using glucose powder
as the seed at a 5°C. The glucose powder was added at
concentration of 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 1.2, 1.8 and 2.4% (w/w). It was
found that creamed honey was produced after 2 weeks at a
temperature of 5°C. The desired glucose concentration was
1.2-2.4% (w/w). The creamed honey was developed as a feed
for honeybee. Suriwong et al. (2020) [59] performed induced
granulation to produce creamed honey with proper texture.
Glucose powder was added, and the honey was stored at 10-
15°C for crystallization. Highest crystallization rate was
found after the addition of 2.0% (w/w) glucose addition.
During storage intensity of yellow colour reduced.
3.3 Co-crystallized honey
The process of incorporating an active ingredient into the
conglomerate of crystals is co-crystallization (Bhandari et al.,
1998; Umesh Hebbar et al., 2008) [8, 63]. The primary
ingredient for co-crystallization is sucrose. The processing
steps include crystallization of supersaturated sucrose syrup,
then the active ingredient is added so that it gets incorporated
into the void spaces of the agglomerate of crystals. The
advantages of the co-crystallized products are its better
flowability, low hygroscopic nature and dispersion property.
This is similar to encapsulation as it helps to prevent the
losses in sensitive compounds (Bhandari et al., 1998; Umesh
Hebbar et al., 2008) [8, 63].
Bhandari et al. (1998) [8] performed the co-crystallization of
honey with sucrose. Different sucrose: honey proportion were
selected (90:10, 85:15 and 80:20). First the sucrose syrup was
heated to 128°C before adding honey and then cooled to
60°C. After cooling the mix was transferred to a watch glass
and dried in an oven at 40°C overnight. Better product of
desired property was produced from 90:10 and 85:15
combination. Another study on co-crystallization of honey
with sucrose was done by Maulny et al. (2005) [41]. Sucrose
water was mixed with water and was heated to 128°C, then
honey was added to the mix at sucrose: honey ratio of 90:10,
85:15 and 80:20 (w/w). Nucleation occurred spontaneously
and then the product was cooled to room temperature. In this
study, after cooling two methods were applied. One was
overnight drying in oven at 40°C (Bhandari et al., 1998) [8]
and the other was centrifugal filtration to remove agglomerate
crystals. The solid part after centrifugal filtration was
transferred to watch glass and oven dried at 40°C. The
products by both the process were ground finely using a
mortar and pestle and was stored in airtight glass bottles. The
moisture content of the product increased with increase in
honey concentration. The co-crystalline product produced by
centrifugal filtration had a maximum of 2% honey and had a
lower moisture content when compared to the other product.
The relative flowability was lower for the unfiltered product.
From the DSC analysis exhibited an overall decrease in
crystallinity of the product with increase in honey
concentration. The filtered product was found to be better
than the unfiltered one in terms of flowability and moisture
content.
4. Evaluation of honey crystallization
Various studies related to evaluation of honey crystallization
have been dealt in this section and is summarised in Table 2.
Table 2: Methods to evaluate honey crystallization
Methods
Parameters analysed
Conclusion
Advantage
References
Molecular dynamics
Morphology of crystals.
Sugar composition of honey
played an important role in
formation of stable crystals.
Powerful tool to analyse
phenomenon at molecular level.
Ma et al. (2017) [38]
Molecular dynamics
and artificial neural
network (ANN)
Crystal stability of the samples
were studied.
The sample with F/G ratio 1.18
formed the most stable crystal
and this sample had the highest
glucose-glucose electrostatic
interaction.
ANN mimics the working and
pattern recognition by human
brain.
Naik et al. (2019) [43]
Electrical impedance
Crystallization process
increases the impedance.
Change in impedance colour
and water activity can be used
to identify crystallization.
Measuring electrical parameters
is a rapid and effective
alternative to the costly chemical
analysis.
Łuczycka et al.
(2016) [35]
Absorbance
Increase in absorbance
intensity is an indication of
granulation.
The turbidity of crystallized
honey increased, and the
intensity of yellow colour was
found reducing.
Absorbance measurement at
660nm is an easy method.
Suriwong et al.
(2020) [59]; Lupano,
(1997) [37]
Differential scanning
calorimetry (DSC)
Crystal growth and type of
crystals formed.
F/G ratio influenced
crystallization rate and storage
at lower temperature can
prevent crystallization.
Avrami model can be used to
explain crystallization kinetics
and DSC determines
crystallization kinetics.
Suriwong et al.
(2020) [59]; Dettori et
al. (2018) [15];
Lupano, (1997) [37];
Nurul Zaizuliana et

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al. (2017) [47]
Time domain-nuclear
magnetic resonance
(TD-NMR)
Magic Sandwich Echo (MSE)
monitored honey
crystallization. Crystallization
was induced by adding glucose
and relaxation time was
measured at the storage
temperature.
The results of induced
crystallization in TD-NMR
system and DSC followed
consistent kinetics.
Easy analytical method to detect
honey crystallization. Do not
require sample preparation.
MSE solves dead time problem
in conventional NMR.
Berk et al. (2021) [6]
Ma et al. (2017) [38] used molecular dynamic simulation to
evaluate the crystallization process in honey. Molecular
dynamics (MD) is a powerful tool to analyse the phenomenon
at molecular level. Environment scanning electron
microscopy (ESEM) was used to analyse the crystals and was
found that the honey crystals had an irregular shape with
smooth edge and that of glucose crystal exhibited plate-like
morphology with flattened edge. Conformational changes in
the crystal were analysed using molecular dynamic
simulation. It was concluded that the sugar composition plays
an important role in the formation of stable honey crystals.
The G/F ratio of 2.5:1 is considered the critical ratio for honey
crystallization.
Naik et al., 2019 [43] molecular dynamics simulation of six
Indian honey samples were performed on sugar profile and
moisture content-based mixture systems. The interaction of
other constituents such as water, sucrose, and maltose along
with F/G and G/W ratio was studied. From the post
simulation analysis most-stable crystal was formed when F/G
ratio was 1.18 and it had highest van der Waals and
electrostatic interaction. Artificial neural network (ANN) is
created in such a way that it mimics human brain in working
and pattern recognition skills. The glucose-glucose
electrostatic interaction energy was found to be most
dominant. F/G ratio should be greater than 1.18 to avoid
crystallization in honey samples. The study also concluded
that water, sucrose, and maltose in honey affected the
crystallization process. Electrical parameters such as
impedance can be used for the measurement of honey
crystallization. Crystallization process increases the
impedance (Łuczycka et al., 2016) [35]. The change in colour
and water activity can also be used as a measure to evaluate
honey crystallization (Kuroishi et al., 2012) [32].
The increase in absorbance intensity is considered a valid
measure of granulation (Suriwong et al., 2020; Lupano, 1997)
[37, 59]. The crystal growth and type of crystal formed in honey
stored at different temperature was analysed using differential
scanning calorimeter (Lupano, 1997) [37]. Honey with few
crystals were stored at -20, 4, 10, 20°C. DSC was done along
with measurement of absorbance at 660nm and light
microscopy. There was an increase in turbidity with
increasing granulation, thus the absorbance at 660nm
increased. The enthalpy of melting (Tm) and absorbance had a
linear relationship. Coarse crystals were formed in honey
stored at 20°C and had a Tm between 45 and 65°C. finely
grained honey was formed at -20°C whereas big and small
crystals were formed at 10 and 4°C, which showed
intermediate property comparing with -20 and 20°C storage
temperature (Lupano, 1997) [37]. Lupano (2007) [36] specified
that with increase in the storage time the crystal size of honey
increases, whereas the storage temperature affects the
crystallization degree and the crystal size (Patrignani et al.,
2018) [49].
Absorbance measurement at 660nm was performed to
evaluate crystallization behaviour of sunflower and longan
honey by the addition of glucose. After the addition of
glucose powder at concentrations 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5% (w/w),
the samples were stored at 10-15°C. Microstructure and
colour of crystallized honey was also analysed by Suriwong et
al. (2020) [59]. Crystallization kinetics was explained using
Avrami model and the highest crystallization rate was found
at 2.0% w/w concentration. The turbidity of crystallized
honey increased, and the intensity of yellow colour was found
reducing. With increasing rate of granulation, absorbance
intensity at 660nm also increased. Avrami equation was used
to explain the crystallization kinetics in honey samples and
DSC was used to determine crystallization kinetics. F/G ratio
was specific for the three honey samples and 5% crystals have
been added before storing the sample at 14°C and was kept
for crystallization. The Avrami equation properly described
the crystallization kinetics. The crystallization rate of honey
samples were proportional to the F/G ratio (Dettori et al.,
2018) [15].
DSC was done to analyse crystallization in Malaysian honey
stored at different temperature for different storage times. The
temperature of storage was 25, 4 and -20°C at different
storage times of 0, 5, 14, 30, 60 and 180 days. The Hutan
honey had the highest crystallization at 4°C when stored for
14 days whereas acacia and kelulut honey did not show any
significant peak in its thermogram when stored at 4 and -
20°C. Gelam honey crystallized when stored at -20°C, so in
order to prevent its crystallization it should not be stored at
lower temperature. At a temperature of 25°C, crystallization
was delayed (Nurul Zaizuliana et al., 2017) [47].
Berk et al. (2021) [6] used time domain nuclear magnetic
resonance (TD-NMR) through magic sandwich echo (MSE).
Honey samples were heated to remove crystals present and
then seeded using glucose powder, this addition increased the
G/W ratio to 2.27. The TD-NMR analysis was done using
NMR system of frequency 20.34 MHz. This was found to be
an easy analytical method for analysing honey crystallization.
Tappi et al. (2021) [60] found that the traditional static method
will create crystallized product that has pronounced
differences based on initial composition whereas the dynamic
method helped to obtain crystallized honey having similar
colour and structural properties as that of the initial product.
The formation of microcrystals by stirring produced product
having low viscosity and hardness. The time for
crystallization was also reduced by the dynamic method.
5. Effects of honey crystallization
Crystallization of honey has many advantages along with
certain disadvantage. Honey crystallization lowers the glucose
concentration in the liquid phase leading to an increase in
water activity (Zamora and Chirife, 2006) [0]. Thus, it causes
yeast proliferation and leading to honey fermentation. Natural
yeast present in honey (osmotolerant) will act on the glucose
and fructose producing ethanol and CO2. Ethanol also get
converted to acetic acid and water which produces the sour
taste (Shafiq et al., 2012) [55]. A study by Ozkok and Silici
(2018) [48] showed that there was reduction in antioxidant
property of honey during long storage irrespective of fast or

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slow crystallization. Excessive heating of honey to retard
crystallization will cause loss of the functional property and
quality degradation. Consumers without knowing the
principle behind crystallization often perceive it to be
artificially produces or adulterated. Sensory parameters such
as flavour, odour, colour, texture etc., were reduced by
crystallization and thus its acceptability also decreased. The
firm texture and turbidity as a result of crystallization are the
major factor for reduced acceptance. Repeated melting of
honey can cause an unstable state which reduces the shelf-life
(Srinual and Intipunya, 2009) [57].
Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), time domain nuclear
magnetic resonance (TD-NMR) along with water activity
measurements were performed to evaluate the water state
during induced crystallization by both static and dynamic
manner in honey (Tappi et al., 2019) [61]. Honey samples with
specific F/G ratio 1.05 (fast crystallization), 1.20 (medium
crystallization) and 1.40 (slow crystallization) were selected.
Samples were heated at 50°C to remove pre-formed crystals
and the absence of any crystals were confirmed using optical
microscopy. Finely granulated crystals from citrus honey
were added to the three samples. The stirring provided
(dynamic crystallization) helped in achieving crystallization
faster when compared to the static one. This study there was
increase in aw, but the value did not increase above the
threshold level for microbial growth (Tappi et al., 2019) [61].
6. Methods to prevent honey crystallization
Crystallized honey will make the people believe that honey is
adulterated. But the fact is crystallization guarantee the purity
of honey. Crystallization has many disadvantages even though
it is a natural process there are problems during handling and
processing (Nurul Zaizuliana et al., 2017) [47] and portioning,
casting of honey becomes difficult. The presence of crystal
makes it unacceptable by children.
Crystallized honey is not accepted by children because of the
presence of crystals. Honey is a food that has to be included
in the diet of children due to its miscellaneous properties such
as antioxidant, prebiotic, antibacterial, anticancer and
antifungal (Naik et al., 2019; García-Tenesaca et al., 2018;
Quintero-Lira et al., 2017; Nayik et al., 2016; Nayik and
Nanda, 2015, 2016; Kamboj et al., 2013; Saxena et al., 2010)
[23, 29, 43-46, 50, 53]. The acceptability criteria of honey include
colour, degree of crystallization and flavour (Patrignani et al.,
2018) [49]. Honey not only influences acceptance but also it is
a criterion for recognition. The changes in these factors along
with difficulty in handling and processing caused by
crystallization creates a need to prevent this process (Amariei
et al., 2020) [3].
6.1 Heat treatment at high or very low temperatures
Thermal processing of honey helps in melting the pre-formed
crystals, it also reduces the microbial load and moisture
content that leads to fermentation of honey (Subramanian et
al., 2007; Tappi et al., 2021) [58, 60]. Crystallization can be
controlled by heating honey or storing at proper conditions.
According to certain literatures, during bottling if honey is
kept at 40-71°C, then crystallization can be reduced. During
mild heating, the crystals melt and heating it at a temperature
of 60-71°C, the crystals dissolve and expand leading to
expulsion of the trapped air which again can stimulate
crystallization process (Eshete and Eshete, 2019; Grégrová et
al., 2015; Subramanian et al., 2007) [22, 24, 58]. Aydogan-
Coskun et al. (2020) [5] studied the effect of heat treatment for
pasteurisation and liquefaction of honey. The effect of
pasteurization treatment done at 90°C for 15 sec was higher
when compared to liquefaction treatment done at 55°C for
2hrs. Due to the lower temperature for liquefaction, its impact
was less on the honey samples.
Consumer acceptance was not affected when honey was
melted at low temperature and partial separation of honey
crystals were performed. But repeated melting can lead to
quality degradation and reduce soluble solids by crystal
formation which lead to an unstable state reducing the shelf-
life (Srinual and Intipunya, 2009) [57].
Freezing temperature maintained the freshness of honey. The
storage at freezer temperature reduced granulation, but at a
temperature of 13 and 15.5°C granulation was accelerated
(Kędzierska-Matysek et al., 2016) [30]. Treatment of honey at -
40°C crystallization was prevented but it is a costly process
and difficult for honey producers (Amariei et al., 2020;
Subramanian et al., 2007) [3, 58].
6.2 Ultrasound
Heating of honey negatively affect the quality. It leads to
increase in 5-Hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) and the
bioactive compounds in honey are also lost. The use of
ultrasound is a non-thermal processing method, which is
effective in reducing microbial load and it also helps in
destruction of the crystalline network and thus inhibit
crystallization (Quintero-Lira et al., 2017) [50]. Other
advantage of this method is HMF formation does not take
place (Mortaș and Yazıcı, 2013) [42]. Ultrasonic waves when
passed through liquid medium will cause mechanical and
thermal changes and also changes in unicellular organisms
present (Subramanian et al., 2007; Thrasyvoulou et al., 1994)
[58, 62]. According to many research, ultrasonic waves were
found to destroy crystals in honey, and it inhibited
crystallization for a longer period. From these studies it is
evident that the quality of honey is less affected by
liquefaction of honey using ultrasound.
Ultrasonic bath and Bain-Marie heat treatment method was
performed on honey to study its effect on
crystallization/recrystallization (Akyol and Güneşdoğdu,
2019) [1]. The samples were subjected to heat treatment at 25
and 50°C for 2hr. The 8.75% was the average crystallization
rate of honey subjected to ultrasonic heat treatment and that
with bain-marie method was found to be 31.25%. The control
sample had an average crystallization rate of 90%. At 50°C,
ultrasonic bath treatment for 2hrs was found to be effective to
avoid crystallization.
Optimised power ultrasound treatment was found reduce the
effects on HMF, colour parameters, diastase activity another
and other quality parameters. Ultrasonically treated honey
was found to have lower count of aerobic mesophilic bacteria
when compared to thermally processed honey samples
(Janghu et al., 2017) [27]. Liquefaction of crystallized honey he
was performed in an ultrasonic bath of 40 kHz at a
temperature of 40 to 60°C at different time of 20, 40 and 60
minutes. Ultrasound treatment at temperature below 50°C was
found to increase the rate of liquefaction process. This process
conducted at low temperature was found to preserve honey
quality and helped to reduce energy consumption. It also
reduced the crystals found in the sample initially (Kabbani et
al., 2011) [28]. The high cost of the procedure is a
disadvantage (Amariei et al., 2020) [3].

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6.3 Filtration and ultrafiltration
Filtered honey has lower tendency to crystallization. Filtration
process removes the crystallization centres such as pollen
grains, glucose crystals, wax particles and other compounds
that stimulates crystallization (Amariei et al., 2020; Grégrová
et al., 2015) [3, 24]. Filtration process has increased the
exposure to light, air etc., which influences its quality, and it
also reduces the antibacterial property of honey.
Ultrafiltration process requires filter materials with pore size
less than 80µm (Amariei et al., 2020) [3]. The desirable
enzymes α-amylase and α-glucosidase are removed by
ultrafiltration (Subramanian et al., 2007) [58].
6.4 Addition of food additives
The use of additives such as isobutyric acid and sorbic acid to
prevent crystallization have been followed in many countries.
But the European Union bans the use of this process
(Subramanian et al., 2007) [58]. Several research and patented
processes have been developed to prevent crystallization by
modifying the F/G ratio through the removal of glucose. In
order to prevent crystallization a new method by the use of
trehalose have been developed by (Amariei et al., 2020) [3].
Trehalose is a non-reducing disaccharide found in a large
amount in acacia honey, which crystallizes slowest. Trehalose
has two glucose units connected by α, α-1,1-glycosidic bond.
It helps plants and microorganisms during stress condition
thus playing a protective role (Kosar et al., 2019) [31]. It is also
a GRAS (generally recognised as safe) additive to be used in
consumer product (Richards et al., 2002) [51]. To 500g of
honey sample, 1.2-1.5mL of 2% trehalose solution was added
and it was stored at 14-16°C. Through the DSC analysis of
trehalose added honey, it was clear that crystallization did not
occur. Its addition prevented the crystallization process and
the sample remained in its liquid state with no change in
colour.
7. Crystallization for detecting adulteration in honey
Crystallization of honey is a natural process and it guarantees
honey authenticity (Scripca and Amariei, 2018) [54]. Honey
crystallization, also called granulation, which was considered
a defect is not always undesirable. Honey adulteration can be
determined using crystallization and rheological properties.
Kurt et al. (2020) [33] attempted a first study to determine
adulteration by crystallization based on seeding sunflower
honey with different levels of crystallized honey. The
crystallization rate was analysed using rheology and the
physiochemical, microstructural and FTIR spectroscopy of
honey was carried out. The natural samples were named A, D,
and E. For indirect adulteration, the bees were fed with bee
feeding syrup (BFS; 100L/colony). Invert syrup of 75°Brix
was used as adulterant, sample B. The honey obtained from
the indirectly fed colony was named sample C. Pure honey
crystals were produced by keeping the samples A, D, and E
stored at 14°C for 1 week. At a concentration of 1%, 5%, and
10% (w/w) the seeds of sample A were inoculated to samples
B, C, and natural honey samples; then vortexed for 10min at
20°C and was stored at 20°C. By mixing 15g each of both the
samples mixture of sample AB and AC was produced. It was
vortexed for 30min at 20°C and seed crystals at concentration
of 5% was added, rest of the process was same as above. The
adulterated and pure samples differed in their rheological
behaviour i.e., the natural honey had different visco-elastic
and flow behaviour from adulterated ones. Faster and
homogeneous crystallization was observed in natural honey
(A). The industries can utilise this simple method for
determining adulteration in honey.
8. Conclusion
Honey crystallization is a natural phenomenon occurring due
to its composition. Most of the consumers prefer liquid honey
and consider crystallization an undesired process. Glucose is
the principal component that crystallizes in honey due to its
supersaturated state and fructose is more soluble than glucose.
The rate of crystallization will be higher if the glucose content
is high. Many studies reveal the optimum temperature of
crystallization as 10-15°C, but there are some studies
conducted at lower temperature which successfully produced
crystallized honey. Depending upon the F/G ratio the
crystallization rate varies i.e., samples having the ratio greater
than 1.58 has no tendency for crystallization and that with
value greater than 1.33 show slow crystallization, whereas
samples with the ratio less than 1.11 crystallizes quickly.
Some studies suggest G/W ratio as a better method to predict
honey crystallization. Samples with ratio less than 1.7 exhibits
slow crystallization and ratio greater than 2.0 exhibits fast
crystallization. Honey crystallization is a desired process in
the production of creamed honey. The crystallization can be
monitored by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC),
molecular dynamics, artificial neural network, nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR) etc. These methods are effective
in determining honey crystallization. Being an undesired
process there are several methods developed to prevent it. The
prevention methods include heating, storing at low
temperature, filtration, ultrafiltration, ultrasound treatment
and latest methods include addition of additives. Heating is
normally done to reduce the risk of crystallization, but it
increases hydroxymethyl furfural content (HMF) and it also
reduces the amount of certain desired enzymes. So, addition
of GRAS additives is a better method. Thus, honey
crystallization has both negative and positive aspects.
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