When I collect honey from my hives:
- I remove capped frames of honey from the hive, Bees only cap the honey when it has the right water content.
- In my extraction room I remove the cappings from the capped cells
- I place the frames in the extractor and spin them to release the honey
- I pass the honey through a coarse filter to remove bits of wax etc.
- The honey is now in the honey bucket - with the lid on.
- The honey stays in the honey bucket for several days - lets the air bubbles out
- I decant the honey into jars which I label.
- And that is all I do to it.
How they prepare supermarket honey:
- Beekeepers will remove capped frames of honey from the hive
- The cappings will be removed from the frames
- The honey will be extracted in an extractor.
- The honey will be put into large drums and shipped to a factory
- The honey will be warmed
- It is heated to between 60C and 74C
- This makes the honey clear and transparent
- It will flow through a very fine filter quickly.
- this removes wax bits and propolis bits
- The honey is blended with honey from EU and non-EU countries
- The honey is put into jars and labelled.
How they prepare adulterated honey.
- Beekeepers will place sugar syrup in the hive.
- The bees take this in and store it in the cells This is not honey - it is partly digested sugar syrup.
These frames may not be capped - the moisture content is too high - The cappings, if any, will be removed from the frames
- The honey will be extracted in an extractor.
- Water will be removed from the honey to reduce its water content to about 18%
This may be by vacuum dehydration.- The honey will be pasteurised:
- It is heated to between 60C and 74C
- This makes the honey clear and transparent
- This destroys any enzymes that are present
- It can now pass through a very fine filter to remove all the particles. This also removes pollen.
- Pasteurised honey cannot be sold as "Honey" in the UK
- Now the adulteration bit
- Add C3 sugar syrup from rice syrup or beet. This is more difficult to detect than C4 sugars.
- Add pollen from the area which you are claiming the honey came from
- It just remains to put a ridiculous price on it
Where does our honey come from?
- 14% of UK consumed honey is from British hives.
- 5% of supermarket honey is from British hives
- 62,000 tonnes of honey is imported to the UK
- 47,740 of the imported honey is from China
- Imported honey from China costs just 84p per kilo
- 75% of Chinese honey is vacuum dehydrated There are those who say this does not alter the flavour.
How can you get pure British honey?
- Buy honey from your local beekeepers association
- Buy honey that has a very short supply chain
- Does it have a depth of flavour
- Does the label comply with all the UK legal requirements?
How is honey tested for authenticity?
These are here for completion if you want to look them up.
There is no single method that works.
As more tests are developed adulterators develop more ways round them.
- Melissopalynology - identification of pollen
- Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis
- Compares C3 and C4 sugar content.
- C4 is from corn and sugar cane
- C3 is from nectar or sugar beet
- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)
- High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)
- Liquid chromatography with Mass Spectrometry
- Non-invasive Spatial Offset Raman Spectroscopy
References