> As a general rule, the EU countries tend to have cooler summer temperatures, hence their intrinsic far lower HMF in honey and the non-tariff barrier to trade created by their low HMF limits on imported honey.
The idea that Europe "in general" has cooler temperatures than what? North America? The EU includes countries all the way from Norway in the North to Cyprus in the south. Even the US has climate zones from Alaska to south Texas. But beyond that, none of these countries has high HMF levels in fresh honey. High HMF levels occur in tropical honeys and old honey.
In this table only tropical honey and some old honey exceeded acceptable EU levels (40 for temperate honey, 80 for tropical).
Bangladesh > 1.5 years 3.18–703.10
India Fresh 0.15–1.70
Pakistan ND–6.00
Iran 0.04–17.20
Malaysia (year) < 1 0.26–68.99
Malaysia (year) > 1 206.06–383.39
Malaysia (year) > 2 986.57–1131.76
Turkey Fresh 0.00–11.50
Turkey < 6 months 19.20–28.6
Turkey 1 year 8.60–39.00
Italy Fresh 1.23–5.95
Croatia – 0.00–23.69
Czech Republic 4 years 0.30–44.20
Poland – 0.70–3.50
Portugal – Room temperature 8.00–94.00
Spain < 3 years – 0.00–21.39
Northwest Spain < 2 years − 30 0.00–1.60
Switzerland < 7 years 0.00–112.00
Algeria < 1 year 1.73–480.00
Burkina Faso < 1 year 3.00–27.50
Ethiopia < 6 months – 0.68–6.56
Kenya < 1 year 3.70–389.36
Morocco – 3.20–52.60
Nigeria < 6 months – 0.66–1.43
Tanzania – – 5.00–26.40
Argentina – 0.05–2.94
Argentina Within 2 months – 1.48–34.08
Argentinean Patagonia > 3 years – 0.00–14.70
Brazil – – 1.50–115.20
Cuba < 1 year 3.30–15.90
Mexico – Room temperature 9.01–21.96
Australia 2 years 1.30–12.40
[HMF concentration is widely recognized as a parameter affecting honey freshness because it is typically absent -- or is present in only very small amounts in fresh honeys, while its concentration tends to rise during processing and/or because of aging.]
Previous studies have reported that honey stored at low temperatures and/or under fresh conditions has low or minimal HMF concentrations, while aged and/or honey stored at comparatively higher or medium temperature has high HMF concentrations. Hence, higher HMF concentration is indicative of poor storage conditions and/or excess heating of honey
In addition to being found in honey, HMF is also present in dried fruits (> 1 g/kg), products containing caramel, instant coffee (up to 6.2 g/kg), apple juice, citrus juices, beer, brandy, milk, breakfast cereal, baked foods, and tomato products, and HMF is released from sugar and carbohydrates after home cooking, indicating that HMF is ubiquitous in the diet.
It is hypothesized that HMF causes bees to experience dysentery-like symptoms and ulcers in the gastrointestinal intestinal tract, leading to their death ... a sugar solution containing 30–150 mg/kg of HMF was used to feed honey bees and was found to cause 15–58.7% of deaths of caged bees within 20 days.
source:
Shapla, U. M., Solayman, M., Alam, N., Khalil, M. I., & Gan, S. H. (2018). 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) levels in honey and other food products: Effects on bees and human health. Chemistry Central Journal, 12(1), 35.
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