Do you REALLY know the difference between raw fresh honey and supermarket honey?
The question I spend the most time clarifying at the markets from honey eaters. Yes, honey is awesome for you but how important is the process before bottling to your honey quality to get those benefits. Love honey, then become an educated honey eater today!
1. What is raw fresh honey?
Raw fresh honey is unpasteurised and minimally processed honey straight from the hive in its raw form. This honey mirrors the temperature naturally found in the hive, retaining all its natural properties. Most honey in shops is pasteurised to extend shelf life. Raw honey has had no heat treatment in any step of its processing. Keeping the product raw does mean honey will crystalised naturally, which makes it easy to spread. Honey doesn’t go off unless moisture is added. Buy raw local honey from the farmers markets or a trusted local beekeeper near you buy contacting a local bee club or sites like www.rawhoney.com.au or try our tub of honey.
Raw fresh honey is most known for:
Raw honey contains incredible enzymes such as phytonutrients, amylase, glucose oxidase, invertase, diastase and catalese thought to be responsible for immune-boosting and anticancer benefits. No other product in the world contains 54 different micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) that humans need for survival in one food source. Raw honey contains bee pollen and propolis fragments with antibacterial and antifungal properties, which contain enzymes and antioxidants that help protect the body from cell damage of free radicals. Eating a teaspoon of raw honey on it’s own has extensive health benefits. Raw honey is an easy and great option to add to your daily routine.
The pasteurisation process heats honey to 65-70 degrees, followed by rapid cooling. Why bother you ask? Heating honey makes it more fluid, making it easier to filter, cleaner in appearance (less pollen and particles) and the big win for consumers is longer shelf life before the honey crystalises. But not only does pasteurising honey extend the shelf life but it dulls the flavours and aromas in the honey and changes the texture. You may notice that raw honey sometimes looks cloudy as it has been filtered through a fine filter than allows pollen, wax particles and sometimes even bee parts through. As mentioned above, these are all the elements of raw honey that are the real benefit. If your raw honey has crystalised you can warm it slowly at around 36-38 degrees and it will return to runny with it’s enzymes intact (this is the temp in the hive). Or just leave it crystalised…it spreads better.
Be an educated honey eater! There is honey and there is honey. Know the difference.
There are so many easy home remedies for DIY goodness using honey in your pantry. Common uses are:
Some not-so-common uses are:
The antibacterial and antifungal properties mentioned above in honey make it a must have in the pantry, not only as a tasty snack. There are many good books around for home remedy ideas but one resource for a deep dive into remedies for honey is the “2 Million Blossoms – the podcast” hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor and the author of “Two Million Blossoms: Discovering the Medicinal Benefits of Honey”. She is an absolute guru in this space.
The colour and flavour of honey varies based on what trees and time of year the bees have sourced the nectar from. While backyard planting is great, the majority of food for bees comes from large established trees. Single source honey such as ironbark or macadamia is achieved when beekeepers move hives to where that is the majority food source for a short period of time before extracting the honey from the frames. The colour of honey can also darken with age. Let your taste buds do the talking and try many different types of raw honey from different locations at different times of year to work out what you like. When you find one, buy in bulk as it may not come by for another year or two (some trees only release nectar every second year). No two batch of ours will taste the same, just how we love it.
Raw honey can contain harmful bacteria to babies under 12 months old such as Clostrialium botulinum. About 20% of honey has been found to contain the bacteria. It is common to raw honey because clostridium bacteria is found in soil and dust and can be found on the pollen and nectar the bees carry. The spores do not reproduce until they find low acidity, moderate temperatures and an absence of oxygen… like the belly of a bee. This is thought not to be passed through pregnancy or breast feeding according to the Qld Breastfeeding guide used in Queensland hospitals. There is extensive information on this topic. So, if your bubba is under one just leave it from their diet. After the age of one, raw honey can be consumed by kids.
Bees store honey in honeycomb and fan the honeycomb cells with their wings to reduce the water content in the honey for long term storage. Honey is hygroscopic, meaning it easily absorbs moisture from the atmosphere around it. Therefore when storing or handling your jar of honey, ensure people don’t double dip from a wet source or add any moisture to the jar, so it does not spoil or ferment. Store honey away from light, avoid metal vessels (as it can oxidise) and extreme heat (keep it like it is in the hive – dark and 36 degrees). Fresh honey doesn’t go off and shouldn’t be stored in the fridge.
These 7 amazing facts, should get you knowing a little more about purchasing, using and storing raw fresh honey. As you see now honey is not just honey. Go and source some local RAW honey from a nearby beekeeper and taste the difference for yourself. You will never go back to pasteurised. If you found this article interesting you can listen to more content on our social media channels.
