Why most organic honey is little better than most processed honey.

June 6, 2008 at 12:52 am • Posted in Processed honey • 1 Comment

There’s a plethora of types of organic honey for sale in the supermarkets and health food stores. People buying this are clearly under the impression that organic=natural honey. However, this just isn’t the case. Most organic honey is processed honey. It’s been pasteurised – i.e boiled to something like 170F so that it’s quicker and easier to get into jars. This speeds up the production process – more jars filled per hour then more profit for the honey producer. Also, most organic honey has been ultra filtered. This is a process where honey is pushed through an extremely fine mesh. The process removes all debris and most of the pollen. It is the pollen that contains the anti oxidants, minerals and vitamins that are beneficial to health.

Wikipedia define unltrafiltration as follows: Ultrafiltered honey Honey processed by very fine filtration under high pressure to remove all extraneous solids and pollen grains. The process typically heats honey to 150-170 °F to more easily pass through the fine filter. Ultrafiltered honey is very clear and has a longer shelf life, because it crystallizes more slowly due to the high temperatures breaking down any sugar seed crystals, making it preferred by the supermarket trade. Ultrafiltration eliminates nutritionally valuable enzymes, such as diastase and invertase

Really the test of good honey is more about whether it’s raw. It is raw honey that still contains the enzymes and pollens that are beneficial for our health. If it’s organic as well great but the first check should be whether it’s raw.

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  1. April 16th, 2010 at 6:50 am

    Organic Honey Said:

    I’m glad someone else is highlighting this issues as well. Organic is a real buzz word these days but doesn’t always equate to healthfulness! Honey is a prime example because as you state if you remove all the “good” stuff in honey the fact that its organic means nothing. We also promote raw, unprocessed honey over any other type of honey.