Honey Information

image courtesy
Wikipedia

Honey is defined in the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) as,

The nectar and saccharine exudation of plants that has been gathered, modified, and stored in a honeycomb by honey bees.

Ohio Revsed Code, §3715

For most beekeepers, their honey is not pasteurized, nor is it blended. This means that each jar will be a little different, and you can enjoy all that nature has to offer.

The information presented below is meant to address the questions we've heard or seen.

Safety Notes

Children <1 year

Never feed honey to children younger than 1 year. Avoid giving honey, even a tiny taste, to babies under the age of 1 year. Raw honey may have Clostridium botulinum cells in it, and these cells can grow and multiply in a baby's gut. There, they can make a harmful toxin that can make a baby ill. This is typically a rare but serious digestive condition called infant botulism. (The spores in honey don't seem to affect adults or children in the same way, probably due to the adult's more developed digestive system.)

If you think your child is at risk, it is best to consult with a physician. I am not a medical doctor; thusly I cannot (and will not) provide medical advice.

Background & More Information

Most bacteria do not thrive in supersaturated sugar solutions such as honey. Nonetheless, some species of bacteria and yeasts can survive in this environment. The most notable bacterium in honey is Clostridium botulinum. While the active bacteria cannot survive in honey, its spores can. And if these spores are consumed, they can become active and cause an infection of botulism.

The bacteria produce a neurotoxin that can cause paralysis and death.
Infants under the age of 12 months are particularly at risk because they have not yet developed the healthy gut microbiome that outcompetes the bacteria.

For this reason, honey should never be given to infants under a year old.

If you have questions or concerns, consult with a physician before giving a child honey.

Immunocompromised Individuals

If you are immunocompromised, consult with a physician before consuming honey. These risks also exist for immunocompromised individuals. As above, I must note that I am not a medical doctor; thusly I cannot (and will not) provide medical advice.

How Bees Make Honey

In one foraging session, a honey bee typically gathers 25–40 micro grams (µg) of nectar from flowers she visits. If the nectar flow is really high, she can carry as much as 70 µg -- which is about 85% of what she weighs.

On a typical nectar foraging event, the bee visits upwards of 500 flowers before she heads back to the hive. One really great design in her genes is that she visits the same types of flowers, which ensures that the pollen she spreads goes to the same types of flowers (this is called floral constancy or floral fidelity).

And on a good day, each forager bee can make ten foraging sessions.

During a bee's lifetime, she will collect enough nectar to make ¹/₁₂^th of an ounce of honey.

The bees add a number of enzymes to the nectar, including invertase and diastase. These help break down the large sucrose molecules of nectar into the smaller sugars of fructose and glucose. When the honey is fully matured, it will have around 1.3% sucrose.

They also add glucose oxidase which converts the glucose into glycolic acid and hydrogen peroxide. These help lower the pH of the honey, enabling it to be stored for longer. The hydrogen peroxide is what helps give honey its healing properties.

Once the bees are happy with it, it gets put into a cell where the bees then work to evaporate the water in the honey. They fan it to get the moisture content below 18.6%, ensuring the honey does not spoil or ferment. Once there, the bees add a wax cap and move on to other activities (bees only live around 6 weeks, so they have to get a lot done in very short lives).

Components of Honey

The average composition of 490 samples of honey tested by the USDA^① showed:

Component	Average	Range
Sugars
Fructose (aka, levulose)	38.19%	27.25%– 44.26%
Glucose (aka, dextrose)	31.28%	22.03% - 40.75%
Maltose^②	7.31%	2.74% – 15.98%
Sucrose	1.31%	0.25% – 7.75%
Higher sugars^③	1.50%	0.13% – 8.49%
Other aspects
Moisture^④	17.2%	13.4% – 22.9%
pH^⑤	3.91	3.42 - 6.10

Notes:

This chart is based on White, J.W., M.L. Riethof, et al. 1962. “Composition of Americans honeys”. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Technical Bulletin 1261:124. (Digital copy provided by Penn State University.)
The sugars categorized as maltose (a disaccharide) include: isomaltose, maltulose, turanose, nigerose, and kojibiose.
These are trisaccharides.
The USDA currently requires that honey be ≤18.6%.
The FDA and USDA define foods with a pH <4.6 as "low acid".

Differing Colors of Honey

Honey consists of a number of products. There are a number of factors which contribute to the color:

Higher levels of these increase the chances for lighter colored honey:
- Sucrose
- Glucose (aka, Dextrose)
- Hydrogen ion concentration (i.e., pH)
- Fructose (aka, Levulose)
Higher levels of these increase the chances for darker colored honey:
- Total acid and free acid levels
- Nitrogen
- Ash
- Maltose
- Di- and trisaccharides

Overall, the specific amounts of each of these materials lends to a unique flavor which can change on a jar-by-jar basis.

Crystallized Honey

If your honey has crystallized, it is not spoilt. And, unless it is mouldy or fermented, you should still be able to eat it.

Why does it crystallize?

There are a number of factors which contribute to this. One of those is the sugar mix:

Higher levels of these sugars increase the chances your honey will crystallize:
- Glucose (aka, Dextrose)
- Sucrose
Higher levels of these sugars decrease the chances your honey will crystallize:
- Maltrose
- Di- and trisaccharides

Also, if there are pollens or other natural products which were not super filtered out, these will help aid in crystallization.

What can I do with crystallized honey?

Here are some options:

Consume it that way

Some appreciate this better than liquid honey. In fact, it is sold in England as chunky honey.

De-crystallize the honey using your car

One relatively popular approach is to leave your honey in the car in the Summer. When your car heats up from the greenhouse effect, your honey will naturally de-crystallize.

Slightly loosen the honey's lid. If it is to tightly closed, the pressure from heating the jar of honey could crack the jar.
Make sure your car is not too hot (as can happen in Arizona).

De-crystallize the honey using your stove

Never use a microwave to re-liquify the honey. In addition to making it too hot so that it can be dangerous, the microwaving process will damage the good parts of the honey.

Here are the instructions.

Put the bottle of honey in a saucepan (or a pot). The pan needs to be deep enough that the lid is below the top of the pan.
Fill the pan with water so that it is close to the bottom of the honey jar's lid, but not above the bottom of the lid. (You do not want water to seep into the jar of honey.)
Slightly loosen the honey's lid. If it is to tightly closed, the pressure from heating the jar of honey could crack the jar.
Remove the honey from the saucepan.
Heat the pan of water on the stove until it is 95° - 104° F (35° - 40° C). This is about the temperature where you can put your finger into the water, but not hold it there for long.
Once the water is around 104°, turn the fire off. You do not want the water to be too hot as it could damage the good stuff in the honey.
Add the honey jar into the pan of warm water, and let it sit there for a few hours. If that doesn't de-crystallize all the honey, repeat the steps above, starting with step 4.
Re-tighten the lid on the jar of honey.

Fermented Honey

Sugar-tolerant yeast spores are often present in honey, but the low moisture content prevents their activation (the USDA requires honey to have a moisture content ≤ 18.6%).

Should the moisture content increase, yeast spores can activate and the yeast can multiply, putting honey at risk of fermentation. Fermented honey will have such signs as:

persistent bubbles and a frothy surface on the honey,
an unusual odor, particularly one which is sour or tangy,
the taste can shift from pure sweet to sweet‑tart or “umami honey”, or
the honey will have mild alcohol notes.

It is best to discard any honey with these indications.

Storing Your Honey

Honey typically does not need to be stored in specific conditions. However, these guidelines will help you keep it best:

Do not store honey in the refrigerator, even after it has been opened.
Do not store the jar on stone countertops. The stone has the tendency to draw heat from the jar, helping it to crystalize.
Do not store honey in open containers. Honey is hygroscopic and will absorb water from the air. If the moisture content of the honey >18.6%, fermentation and other issues may arise.