Abstract
The study assessed the utilization of honey in Ughelli North Local Government Area, Delta State, Nigeria. Out of the seven (7) communities in Ughelli North Local government area, four (4) communities were purposively selected for the study and seventy (70) copies of questionnaires were randomly administered to the households in each of the communities. A total of two hundred and eighty (280) copies of questionnaires were administered to the respondents in the study area. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency, percentage, mean and presented in tables and charts. The results revealed that the majority of the respondents (32.13%) use honey as beverages while the least (4.59%) use honey as skin care. Nutritional benefit influenced the majority of the respondents (50.34%) to use honey while price influenced the least (2.05%). The medicinal uses of honey revealed that the majority of the honey consumers (38.17%) use honey for wound healing while the least (3.44%) use honey for allergy relief. The results revealed that some people do not utilize honey as reported by majority of the respondents because of high price (51.32%) while limited availability (3.95%) was the least. The results also revealed that majority of the respondents (30%) consume honey daily while the least (15%) rarely consume honey and 2% never consume honey. The highest number of respondents (42.50%) consume honey in the morning during breakfast while the least (6.07%) in the afternoon during lunch. The results of the challenges with honey utilization revealed that majority of the respondents (58%) reported high price of honey, 28.80% reported the quality of honey, 9.20% unpleasant taste, 2.40% limited availability and 1.60% lack awareness about its benefit. It was recommended that there should be increase in awareness about honey’s benefits by utilizing effective channels like the internet and radio to help educate potential customers about the nutritional and medicinal values of honey.
Keywords: Honey; Beverage; Nutritional benefit; Medicinal uses; Wound healing.
