What is Honey?

Mature honeybees collect nectar from plant blossoms. Nectar is 80 to 95 percent water and 5 to 20 percent sucrose (table sugar). As the bee transports the nectar back to the hive, a protein enzyme in her honey stomach, called invertase, breaks the sucrose down into the two simple sugars, fructose and glucose. Young bees remove water from the sugar solution using two methods. They pass the nectar from bee to bee and ‘drink’ the water out of the nectar by absorbing it through their stomach wall. They also create heat and air flow in the hive by vibrating their wings and flight muscles, evaporating water out of the nectar which has been stored in open cells.

When most of the sucrose has been converted to fructose and glucose AND enough water has been dehydrated out of the mixture to bring it to approximately 17.8% water content, we get a delicious sticky mixture called honey! After honey is made, bees cap it with beeswax to maintain the low moisture content.

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Honey Processing

Many years ago, beekeepers crushed honeycomb to get liquid honey! That method of honey processing produces less honey for the beekeeper as it forces bees to spend time and resources building replacement comb rather than making more honey. We’ve come a long way since then!  The advent of the centrifugal extractor has allowed beekeepers to ‘scratch’ or ‘slice’ off a thin layer of wax from the surface of the comb and spin the honey out using centrifugal force. The integrity of the comb is maintained and the bees have far less work to do to repair any cracks or shallow spots in the comb. 

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Nutritional Value of Honey

Average Composition of Honey

Honey is primarily fructose (38%), glucose (31%), water (17%), maltose (7%), and small amounts of trisaccharides, other higher carbohydrates, sucrose, minerals, vitamins, and enzymes.

Vitamins – trace amounts

Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Pantothenic acid, Vitamin B-6, Vitamin B-12, Folate, Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K

Minerals – trace amounts

Calcium, Copper, Iron, Magnesium. Manganese, Phosphorous, Potassium, Sodium, Zinc

Antioxidants – enzymatic and non-enzymatic

Catalase, ascorbic acid, flavonoids

standard nutritional information

(Per 20g serving)

LABEL	AMOUNT	DAILY %
CALORIES	60
FAT / LIPIDES	0G	0%
CARBOHYDRATES / GLUCIDES	17G	6%
SUGARS	16G
PROTEIN	0G	0%

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hONEY cRYSTALLIZATION

Crystallization is the formation of monohydrate glucose crystals from a super-saturated sugar solution (ie. honey).

tHE RATE OF CRYSTALLIZATION INCREASES WITH:

• Lower water content
• Higher glucose content
• Presence of solid particles (ie. pollen grains & honey crystals)
• Temperature close to 14 C (Temperatures above 28 C and below 5 C result in very slow crystallization)
• Stirring

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Storing Honey

Honey is a very robust food product, and if stored properly, will last years, if not decades. In fact, honey has been found perfectly preserved in tombs of the Pharaohs in Egypt.

The quality of honey may be damaged by the following factors:

Excessive Moisture

Ideally, the moisture content of honey should be less than 17.8%. If the moisture content is too high, say greater than 20%, the honey may ferment due to yeasts in the honey. Since honey is hygroscopic, if it is not in a sealed container, it will attract moisture from the air.

Excessive Heat

Honey loses many of its health benefits with the combination of heat and time. The following is a rule of thumb storage time vs temperature to retain most of it’s health benefits:

• 40 C for 30 days
• 30 C for 6 months
• 20 C for 4 years
• 10 C for 35 years

Prolonged Exposure to Sunlight

Honey loses many of its health benefits with prolonged exposure to sunlight.

Noxious elements in its environment

Honey is hygroscopic and takes on odours from its environment. It is also acidic, so it can dissolve metal if stored in metal containers.

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hONEY + iNFANTS

The bacterium Clostridium Botulinum is very common in nature and in any raw food—including honey which may contain Clostridium botulinum spores.

A fully developed digestive system will protect a person against ingested C. botulinum. However, the digestive system of an infant under the age of 12 months is not fully developed, and can’t deal with many kinds of antigens, including C. botulinum. The toxins produced by C. botulinum are extremely dangerous and present a very serious condition for infants.

Honey is a raw food and is NOT recommended for infants less than 12 months of age.

It is extremely rare to find C. botulinum in honey, but there have been a handful of documented cases over the last 40 years. In these cases, it is thought that the bacteria came in contact with the honey somewhere during honey processing but the best practice is for infants not to consume honey until they reach a year old. 

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