Rheological modelling of the effects of sucrose adulterant on Nigerian honey

Abstract

Rheology has been applied as sensitive tool for material characterisation since flow behaviour correlates closely with composition, molecular weight and molecular weight distribution. Pure honey was serially diluted with different percentages of sucrose: 10%, 50%, 70% and 90% and each were analysed rheologically at two different   temperatures. Pure honey exhibits thixotropic time dependent rheological behaviour, while the behaviour of sucrose tends towards Newtonian. The addition of adulterant to honey drags the viscosity of the resulting fluid towards Newtonian. The rheological curve fitting was done using the Power Law and Carreau-Yasuda models. The results  show that the Carreau-Yasuda model fitted better the rheology of pure honey samples. Conversely, the rheology of sucrose solution was predicted better with Power Law model.

Keywords: Rheology, honey, Carreau-Yasuda model, Power Law model, sucrose  adulteration.