Honey is a natural product made by bees using flower's nectar (floral honey) or excretion of alive parts of plants or either excretion produced by sucking insects from alive parts of plants (honeydew honey). Honeydew is an alternative food source used by bees. In Santa Catarina state, honeydew honey is produced from january to april, each two years. In order to identify the presence of honeydew honey, 25 samples were sampled randomly from january/93 to june/96. They were colected from different apiaries in different periods of time and tested for moisture, pH, ash, reducing sugars, and the results were used in the application of Kirkwood equation to classify honey as floral or honeydew. They were analised for polarimetry, to classify them according to Kirkwood and White. The statistical study was done by the application of exact test of Fisher and, in spite of some divergences found to classify 4 samples, the statistical study showed correlation between Kirkwood and White methods, indicating that both can be used.
honey; honeydew in honey; physical and chemical composition
