**4. Conclusions**

According to our findings, Serbian sunflower honey is of good quality. The closely connected quality-related criteria under examination revealed values that were consistent with the limitations imposed by national and European legislations. Those samples exceeding the insoluble matter content upper limit of 0.1% do not present a health risk for consumers. Taking into account the crystallization indices, we concluded that sunflower honey is a rapidly crystallizing honey.

The 18 months of storage at room temperature increased the concentration of HMF and decreased the activity of diastase, as well as the pH and the moisture content of sunflower honey. The acidity of sunflower honey was unaffected by storage.

In general, storage for 18 months at room temperature affects the quality of sunflower honey, thus, storing this type of honey at lower temperatures appears to be required. In order to predict the shelf life of sunflower honey and preserve the natural qualities of honey for as long as possible, additional research on the effects of storage time and storage temperature is required.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, M.Ž.B. and D.L.P.; methodology, S.J., N.P. and Ž.M.; validation, S.J. and Ž.M.; formal analysis, N.P.; investigation, M.P.; resources, R.R.; data curation, M.P.; writing—original draft preparation, M.Ž.B.; writing—review and editing, D.L.P.; visualization, R.R.; supervision, D.L.P. and M.Ž.B. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation of Republic of Serbia by the Contract of implementation and funding of research work of NIV-NS in 2023, contract no.: 451-03-47/2023-01/200031.

**Data Availability Statement:** Data are contained within the article.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. The study's design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation, the drafting of the report, and the decision to publish the findings were all performed independently of the funder.
