Development and sensory evaluation of honey-infused bakery products with enhanced nutritional and functional atributes

Abstract:

The incorporation of infused honey into bakery products represents a promising strategy for enhancing both sensory appeal and nutritional value, yet systematic evaluation of honey infusion variants on cookie quality atributes remains limited. This research developed and evaluated cookies formulated with four herb-infused honey variants (lavender, ginger, cinnamon, and rosemary) compared to a conventional sugar-based control, assessing sensory characteristics, proximate composition, antioxidant activity, and storage stability over 12 weeks. Cookies were prepared using standardised formulations with 30% sugar replacement by infused honey. Sensory evaluation by a 48-member trained panel using a 100-point composite scale revealed that cinnamon honey cookies achieved the highest overall acceptability (84.2±2.8) , followed by ginger honey (82.4±2.6) and lavender honey (78.6±3.1) formulations, all significantly exceeding the control (62.4±3.4 , p < 0.001) . Proximate analysis demonstrated 24.6-38.4% increases in total phenolic content and 18.2-28.6% enhancements in antioxidant activity across infused honey formulations compared to controls. Previous reviews on infused honey utilisation in cookies have highlighted the formulation potential of these ingredients ^[1]. Storage stability trials revealed that infused honey cookies maintained significantly higher antioxidant retention (68.2- 72.6% at week 12) compared to controls (52.4%). These findings establish that herb-infused honey incorporation at 30% sugar replacement level produces bakery products with superior sensory acceptance and enhanced functional atributes.