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Ummay Mahfuza Shapla, Md. Solayman, Nadia Alam | Chemistry Central Journal | (2018)
Key Takeaways
Plain English Takeaway
A chemical called HMF forms in honey and many processed foods when they are heated or stored for a long time. HMF can be both harmful and helpful to people and bees, so it's important to control how much is in our food.
Study Aim
The review aims to gather and explain current knowledge about 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), a compound formed in honey and other foods during heating and storage. The authors seek to clarify how HMF forms, how it is detected, its effects on honey bees and humans, and ways to reduce or remove it from foods. They also discuss both the negative and positive health impacts of HMF, hoping to guide safer food processing and storage practices.
Simply put: The paper wants to explain what HMF is, how it gets into food, what it does to bees and people, and how to manage its levels.
Study Design
This work is a comprehensive review article. The authors collected and analyzed published research articles on HMF in honey and other foods, including studies on its formation, detection, health effects, and mitigation. They included all relevant articles, regardless of publication date, to provide a global overview. The review covers laboratory, animal, and some human studies, as well as food chemistry and processing research.
Simply put: The authors read and summarized many scientific studies about HMF in foods to give a big-picture view of what is known.
Findings
The review demonstrates that HMF forms in honey and many processed foods when sugars are heated or stored in acidic conditions. High HMF levels indicate poor storage or excessive heating. HMF can harm honey bees, causing illness or death if present in their food. In humans, HMF and its byproducts can damage DNA, organs, and enzymes, and may increase cancer risk, but can also act as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-allergic agent. Most HMF is quickly excreted, but some toxic forms may accumulate. There is no clear safe intake level for HMF, and more clinical research is needed. Reducing heat and storage time, and using vacuum technology, can help lower HMF in foods.
Simply put: HMF can be bad or good for health, so it's important to keep its levels low in food by careful processing and storage.
Abstract
An organic compound known as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is formed from reducing sugars in honey and various processed foods in acidic environments when they are heated through the Maillard reaction. In addition to processing, storage conditions affect the formation HMF, and HMF has become a suitable indicator of honey quality. HMF is easily absorbed from food through the gastrointestinal tract and, upon being metabolized into different derivatives, is excreted via urine. In addition to exerting detrimental effects (mutagenic, genotoxic, organotoxic and enzyme inhibitory), HMF, which is converted to a non-excretable, genotoxic compound called 5-sulfoxymethylfurfural, is beneficial to human health by providing antioxidative, anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-hypoxic, anti-sickling, and anti-hyperuricemic effects. Therefore, HMF is a neo-forming contaminant that draws great attention from scientists. This review compiles updated information regarding HMF formation, detection procedures, mitigation strategies and effects of HMF on honey bees and human health.
Referenced In
Created: Apr 4, 2025