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| Frequently Asked Questions |
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- Why shouldn't I feed Honey to a child under 1 year of age?
- Do you heat treat your honey?
- What is Honey granulation (crystallization or sugaring)?
- Why are some types of Honey clear and runny and other types opaque and hard?
- How do bees make Honey?
- Why shouldn't I feed Honey to a child under 1 year of age?
WARNING: Do not feed honey to infants under one year of age.
Infant Botulism is a rare but very serious disease affecting the nervous system of infants. Honey and other raw agricultural products may contain bacterial spores from Clostridium botulinum that could cause Infant Botulism. These bacterial spores are widely distributed in nature. They can be found in soil, dust, the air or raw agricultural products. C. botulinum spores have been detected in corn syrup, honey, fresh and processed meats, fruits and vegetables. Scientists don't know why, but this disease has never been reported in an infant older than 11 months of age.
- Do you heat treat your honey?
No high heat treatment/pasteurisation of our honeys is performed at any point of the manufacturing or packaging process.
Heat treatment of honey, or pasteurisation, requires heating honey to 71°C (160°F) for a period of four minutes followed by rapid cooling through a heat exchange unit.
The only time that we heat our honey is when we move it from the frames or from the storage drums which is done at 41°C (105.8°F). The only reason that we heat to this point is that honey behaves more fluidly at this temperature and is more easily packaged.
As opposed to a high-temperature pasteurisation process, no possible detrimental effect on the colour, flavour or aroma of the honey is caused at the low temperatures we use. In fact, these temperatures are well within the temperatures experienced by most Honey Bees in the Australian climate.
Furthermore, the pasteurisation process used in the honey industry should not be mistaken with the heat sterilisation process used in the dairy industry. Honey, as opposed to dairy products, does not require pasteurisation to be deemed safe for human consumption.
The heating process in pasteurisation does extend the potential shelf life of honey, however it is more of a marketing issue than a health issue.
- What is Honey granulation (crystallization or sugaring)?
Granulation is a natural characteristic of pure honey which does not harm it or indicate any deterioration of the honey. It is also easily reversed by carefully heating the honey container by standing it in hot water.
- Why are some types of Honey clear and runny and other types opaque and hard?
The type of honey made by the bees is dependent on the types of foliage and flowers available to the bees. Crops such as oil seed rape (the bright yellow fields in the spring) produce large quantifies of honey that sets very hard, so hard even the bees could not use it in the winter, garden flowers tend to give a clear liquid honey.
- How do bees make Honey?
Bees take nectar, which is a sweet sticky substance exuded by most flowers and some insects (Honey dew), and mix it with enzymes from glands in their mouths. This nectar/enzyme mix is stored in hexagonal wax honeycomb until the water content has been reduced to around 17%. When this level is reached the cell is capped over with a thin layer of wax to seal it until the bees need it. This capping indicates to the beekeeper that the honey can be harvested. Capped honey can keep almost indefinitely.
Perfectly edible honeycomb was found in the tombs of the Pharaohs, over three thousand years old. How’s that for ‘Best Before dates’?
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Honey
Bees-Wax
