(Image source from: Times of India)
The milk city of India, Anand, Gujarat will be soon to home to country's initial hi-tech laboratory which will test honey, a symbol of well-being.
Promoting scientific bee-keeping among farmers, Anand-headquarted National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) will house the first honey testing lab in collaboration with National Bee Board (NBB).
NDDB has commenced the process of setting up the facility of honey testing which will come up as part of its multi-disciplinary laboratory, Centre for Analysis in Livestock and Food (CALF) that deals with the testing needs of diary food industry and livestock sector.
“Such a facility will develop a world class honey authenticity capability in the country and promote consumer confidence for honey,” said a NDDB official, adding that currently Indian laboratories lack analytical facilities to meet the stringent benchmarks for purity and quality of honey as per international regulations including that of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the European Union Commission.
“Mostly samples of honey for export are sent to Intertek’s laboratory at Germany or United States for testing before being exported to meet the requirements of international regulations,” the official said.
Besides quality parameters, residues and contaminants, the authenticity of honey is one of the most crucial parts of honey testing.
“Authenticity of honey includes on the one hand, the determination of the geographical and botanical origin and on the other hand, it must be evaluated whether honey has been adulterated with foreign sugars or whether honey was produced by excessive sugar feeding to the bees,” the official said.
In February, NDDB along with NDDB initiated a drive to boost bee-keeping among farmers by using diary cooperative in the country.
The nationwide drive sensitized extension officers and field staff of milk unions those located in different parts of the country regarding bee-keeping importance as an additional livelihood option and its role in intensifying yields of major agricultural and horticultural crops.
By well-known bee-keepers and institutions of the country farmers are being provided practical training.
“Besides honey, farmers are also trained in production of other bee-hive products such as wax, pollen, royal jelly, propolis and bee-venom,” the official said.
some milk unions such as Banas Dairy in Gujarat, Sunderban in West Bengal, Bihar's Muzaffarpur have already stared initiating and marketing of honey using their dairy infrastructure and umpteen milk unions are in the process of initiating the activity.
By Sowmya Sangam
