Malays. Appl. Biol. (2017) 46(3): 89–96
MICROBIOLOGICAL QUALITY AND pH CHANGES OF HONEY
PRODUCED BY STINGLESS BEES, Heterotrigona itama AND
Geniotrigona thoracica STORED AT AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
MOHD NIZAM LANI1*, AMIRAH HAZIRAH ZAINUDIN1, SHAMSUL BAHRI ABDUL RAZAK1,
AZLINA MANSOR2 and ZAITON HASSAN3
1School of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT),
21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia
2Enzyme and Fermentation Technology Programme (BT03), Biotechnology and
Nanotechnology Research Centre, MARDI Headquarters,
43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
3Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM),
Bandar Baru Nilai, 71800 Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
*Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Accepted 18 September 2017, Published online 4 October 2017
ABSTRACT
The Meliponini honey is one type of stingless bee honey. Although honey has been widely used as a natural remedy, understanding on how storage affect the microbiological quality and pH in stingless honey is still scarce. This study was carried out to determine the microbial quality of honey produced by stingless bees, Heterotrigona itama and Geniotrigona thoracica during ambient storage for 6 weeks. The changes in microbiological analysis was determined for Aerobic Plate Count (APC), yeast count and Bacillus count. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were isolated using three types of media, namely, MRS agar, MRS agar with 0.8% CaCO3 and MRS agar with 1% glucose. Detection of Clostridium was done using anaerobic egg-yolk agar and cook meat medium. Results showed that Aerobic Plate Count ranged between 102 to 105 CFU/g for both samples. However, yeast count showed the range between 102 to 106 CFU/g, which higher than APC. Both honey samples showed low in Bacillus count. The LAB counts on three media were significantly higher for the first month of storage, then decreased gradually after fifth week. Storage of honey had reduced the pH in both honey samples to pH 2. Clostridium was not detected in all samples.
Key words: Microbiological quality, pH change, ambient storage, Lactic Acid Bacteria, stingless bee honey
