Unveiling the quality profiles of honey from selected districts of South Wollo, Ethiopia

The study was conducted to assess the physico-chemical characteristics of honey collected from selected districts of the South Wollo Zone of Amhara region, Ethiopia. Thirty honey samples from modern hives were collected across two harvesting seasons and three different agro-ecologies. The result revealed that, the average values for major quality parameters were 19.14 meqkg-1 for the free acidity (FA), 17.43% for the moisture content (MC), 0.09% for the ash content (AC), 3.13 for the pH and 5.49 mg/kg for hydroxyl-methyl-furfural (HMF), respectively. The results for the highland region showed significant influences of harvest season on ash and HMF contents of honey samples from Dessie Zuria district at p < 0.05 significant levels. In midland agro-ecology, season had a significant effect only on FA and HMF content at p < 0.05 significant levels. In the lowland agroecology, only HMF levels were influenced by season at p < 0.05. In general, no quality parameters varied significantly between harvesting seasons at p > 0.05, except ash content and HMF content at p < 0.05. Honey from the first season had the highest ash content (0.13 ± 0.0), while honey from the second season had a higher HMF content (9.25 ± 1.2). In general, the physico-chemical properties of the honey samples were within the range specified for established honey quality standards.