Research at The University of Queensland is determining whether the way honey is harvested and stored can affect the taste and quality of the product.
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation PhD candidate James Yu Jun Lian said his work aimed to safeguard the future of premium Australian honeys.
“This is the first detailed look at how gentle extraction may preserve Australia’s unique botanical flavours,” Mr Lian said.
“It opens the door to defining what freshness means in honey, which is something the industry has never formally measured.”
The research compared honey from 3 locations across south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales using 2 extraction methods – the traditional Langstroth hive and the Australian made Flow Hive – followed by commercial processing.
“The processes used for the past century with the Langstroth hive expose honey to heat, oxygenation and vibration,” Mr Lian said.
“Heating and spinning honey to extract from the frames means different honeys can become similar in flavour, rather than distinctive.
“Those processes can damage the beautiful botanical notes that give Australian honeys a unique bouquet, thus reducing their intrinsic value.
“The Flow Hive minimises any disturbance to the hive while allowing the honey to flow naturally with no extra heat and minimal agitation.”
Mr Lian said honeys extracted from the Flow Hive had a lighter colour and lower levels of hydroxymethylfufural or HMF, a compound used to measure the quality of heat exposure of honey.
“Lower HMF and lighter colour signals reduced chemical damage to the honey,” Mr Lian said.
“We’ve also compared the aroma and flavour of heated and aged honeys, which became more caramelised and medicinal in taste, proving that heat and oxygen detrimentally affected their flavour.”
Sensory scientist Professor Heather Smyth said work was underway to find ways to show and measure honey that had been damaged.
“There’s huge interest globally in understanding honey freshness and how different processing methods influence quality,” Professor Smyth said.
“Honey lacks the well‑developed freshness metrics found in industries like wine and coffee and this work is helping establish those foundations.
“This includes things like the colour, texture and physical properties of the honey but also its composition in terms of sugar content and flavour.
“Odour compounds can tell us something has been bruised or damaged, like the acetaldehyde note of a bruised apple tells us something has been lost.”
The team plans to track how honey changes post-harvest, aiming to pinpoint when key quality shifts occur and how different extraction methods can influence flavour, aroma and texture.
“We want to take advantage of the varieties of boutique Australian honeys compared to other countries and open opportunities for high value gastronomic applications,” Mr Lian said.
“Our honeys should be valued for their unique aroma profiles and the flavour linked to our native plants.”
This research was supported by the Australian Government Research Training Program tuition fee scholarship and funded by the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Uniquely Australian Foods, UQ and Beeinventive Pty Ltd.
Media contacts: UQ researchers James Lian, y.lian@uq.edu.au, +61 421 082 760; Professor Heather Smyth, h.smyth@uq.edu.au, +61 468 732 394; and UQ QAAFI media Carolyn Martin carolyn.martin@uq.edu.au mobile 0439 399 886.
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The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation is a research institute at The University of Queensland, established with and supported by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries.
