Friday, September 29, 2006

Tanzanian University Develops New Honey Processing Technology


SUA Concocts Honey Processing Technology
By Mgeta Mganga, Guardian (Tanzania), 9/18/2006

Scientists at the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) have developed an efficient honey processing technology for domestic bee-keepers.

The invention is thought to mark an end to the habit of home-processed honey failure to command significant share in either domestic or foreign markets because of poor processing technologies that diminish the quality of the final products.

In an interview in Dar es salaam during the 7th African Intellectual Property and Technology Day last week, Valery Ngatingwa, Chief Technologists and bee-keeping expert technologies in the Department of Engineering from SUA said the new equipment would help farmers to process pure honey of high quality and wax.

According to Ngatingwa, the technology uses the gravity force to suck honey while protecting the honey from contamination by foreign materials, including dust.

The fabricated local machine is said to be able to process eight litres of honey within thirty minutes, if adequate heat is available to the system. Again, it is portable enough to moved to any location where honey harvesting was undertaken…

The by-products of honey - wax, pollen, propolis, venom, brood and royal jelly - could properly be extracted from honey once the new technology is deployed, thus creating more incomes and jobs in the rural areas…

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