*3.6. Color*

The appearance of honey is very important for consumers. The color of honey is a sensory parameter that varies between di fferent types of honey and is dependent on chemical parameters such as mineral content and polyphenols content [48]. Regarding the mineral composition, it was argued that amber and dark honey have a higher content of certain minerals (Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Zn, Al, Ni, Cd and Mn) by comparison to light-colored honey [49]. Furthermore, transition metals seem to influence the color of honey through the formation of complexes with some organic compounds. The color of honey can be also a ffected by both storage and thermal processing which was linked to the formation of Maillard reaction products [11].

As previously mentioned, color is a parameter that is dependent on the botanical origin of honey, as shown by the values in Table 2. The color values presented on the Pfund scale were used to classify honey by color. The color of the analyzed honey samples varied between white (rape honey), extra light amber (sunflower honey, thyme and polyfloral) and light amber (mint and raspberry honey). Manzanares et al. [50] analyzed 85 samples of honey from Tenerife, Spain and reported values between 24 and 150 mm Pfund. The color of honey samples was characterized by red and yellow shades (first quadrant of CIEL a\*b\* color space), as a\* and b\* coordinates had positive values. The lightness values

(L \*) of the six Tunisian honey samples analyzed by Boussaid et al. [36] ranged from 36.64 to 51.37, while in our honey samples it ranged from 34.4 to 46.1.
