Effect of Storage Time on Honey Quality in Selected Districts of West Hararghe Zone, Oromia Regional State

This study was conducted to identify the effect of storage time on honey quality in West Hararghe zone. A structured questionnaire interview and checklist were the main tools used to gather primary data from the households. The household data were collected from 96 beekeepers in three districts of west hararghe zone. For the physicochemical analysis, honey was harvested from frame beehive of a single farmer and stored in a glass jar for 3, 6 and 9 months and analyzed for moisture, pH, free acidity, glucose, fructose, sucrose and HMF. Majority of the beekeepers owned traditional beehives. The average beekeeping experience of the sample beekeepers was 10.25 years with the range varying from 1 to 40 years of continued engagement in beekeeping. From the total number of respondents 79.2 were store honey for different purposes up to one year. Beekeepers store their honey in different sizes and types of materials available in the area with the most common being Plastic bucket (46.4%), followed by Plastic bucket and “qil” (29.8%), Plastic bucket,”qil” and “Tanika” (11.9%) and “Tanika” and plastic bucket (6%). From the respondents 97.9% were smoke the hive during honey harvesting and 53.1 said it has no effect on honey quality. Beekeepers identified Olea spp, Vernonia spp, cow dung, Juniperus procera and Carissa spinarum as major smoking material in the study area. The results of the physicochemical analysis indicated all the samples are within the acceptable range of world and Ethiopian honey quality standards with moisture (20.6%), free acidity (34.4 meq/kg), pH (4.6), glucose (30.8%), fructose (33.4%), sucrose (3%) and HMF (8.5 mg/kg). From this study it was revealed that the quality of honey produced in the area was good during the nine month storage time.