Assessment on Postharvest Handling Practices of Honey in Chena District, Southwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

Honey is a natural food produced by honeybees from nectar or secretion of flowers. Even though honey production in Ethiopia is from a long period of time, the honey produced in the country in general in the study area in particular is still poor in quality due to handling problems. The objective of this study was to assess the postharvest handling practices of honey produced in Chena district, Southwestern Ethiopia. Majority (72.2%) of the respondents use smoke and fire to harvest honey from traditional hives. Smoking materials used by respondents in the study area were animal dung (42.9%), teff straw (31.7%) and vernonia amegdalina leaves (25.4%). According to the respondents, the smoking materials had negative effect on color, taste and moisture. Honey storage containers used by respondents in the study area were plastic containers (27%), plastic sack (24.6%), clay pot (19.8%), tin (21.4%) and animal skin (7.2%). The result showed that honey harvesting, collecting, processing, straining and storing containers in the study area are traditional and not technically appropriate. Awareness should be created for beekeepers on the improved beekeeping system, type of containers they use and how to keep the quality of their honey.

Keywords: Postharvest; handling practice; honey; chena

DOI: 10.7176/FSQM/89-04

Publication date: August 31st 2019