Processing Raw Honey

Unprocessed, raw honey doesn't have the golden color we're so familiar with before it's processed, or cooked down to the point that it caramelizes. In it's natural state, honey is actually white and pasty looking. In fact, it's lighter in color than raw table sugar, but the table sugar we buy has been bleached white through processing. Unprocessed sugar is really brown.

Once the beekeeper collects the raw honey it must be processed immediately because it quickly crystallizes if it's allowed to sit. The raw honey is pasturized, or heated up to between 150-170 degrees in order to kill the bacteria that causes botulism, Botulism, as is commonly known, is food poisoning. So raw honey needs to be pasteurized to make it safe to eat and to put in food.

The benefits of raw honey.

Besides being used in our foods, unprocessed raw honey also serves a purpose in medicine and in many vitamin supplements. Raw honey carries a high level of antioxidants and enzymes and aids in digestion and other health properties.

Also among the benefits of honey is that it's gradually taking the place of corn syrup in many of the foods we eat today. Corn syrup has been linked to diabetes because people eat it in such large amounts. Raw honey is being used because it's produced naturally while corn syrup is mechanically processed. Honey is also being used in beer and other beverage like teas. It's recently becoming a very useful product. For more than 2700 years raw honey was used in medicine to provide topical relief for rashes and skin irritation like the condition called MRSA (pronounced mersa-a type of resistant staph infection). Honey is also good for mixing it with a little lemon to treat laryngitis and was used to treat contagious conjunctivitis (pink eye).

There are 7 different ways raw honey can be processed. However, the most common is raw honey that's simply heated and pasteurized. That's mostly the honey you find in stores today. Parents are advised to be careful in giving infant honey products because of the acid levels and potential exposure to the botulism bacteria. That's why it is wise to eat honey that's been pasteurized since you don't know what kind of exposure the bees who produced the honey has been around so it's better to eat honey that's been pasteurized or produced by an organic farmer that sells raw honey because it's probably the safest kind of honey you can eat that isn't going to expose you to harmful bacteria.

Some beekeepers produce only organic honey because they don't believe in producing a product using harmful pesticides and chemicals. Organic farmers only produce products on land that's not treated with chemicals. Organic farmers also have standards they must adhere to in terms of what the market expects of their products.


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