So, What is Honey, Really? Part II - What's in a Name?

So, Phillip over at mudsongs.org has asked the question “What makes honey taste bland?” Rusty over at honeybeesuite.comgave an answer, but as a beekeeper up in Canada, who has to deal with our own particular labelling requirements, I thought I should chime in! So here I go.

The issue at hand today is, in my not so humble opinion, the labelling of honey. Phillip seems to have gone to a grocery store, and purchased a bottle of “Pure liquid honey” labelled “Canada No.1 White” and been disappointed with the results. Well, the honey has been packed by a commercial honey packer, but let’s see if we can’t unpack that label a little bit.


Let’s start at the end shall we? “White” is a colour grade. For packaged honey this means “not more than 30mm on a Pfund Honey Grader,” and is the lightest grade we have available – although exceptionally light (<13mm Pfund) honeys sold in bulk may be labelled “Extra White.” Now, here’s where I think the first issue with the flavour lies. With Honey (or maple syrup, or sugar for that matter) the lighter the colour, the less extras are in the honey to start with. If you remember yesterday’s post, nectar is variable and with that comes variation in the honey. Some plants just have more interesting stuff going on in the nectar. When the nectar is concentrated as the bees produce the honey, the extras manifest in darker colour, and more interesting flavour (although I do have to say that there are a few exceptionally nice light honeys out there). In Canada the darkest we produce comes from some plants in the buckwheat family (e.g. buckwheat honey, Japanese knotwood, etc). To me these taste halfway between molasses and diesel fuel, but hey, the worse the honey tastes, the more I can sell it for, and some people genuinely love the stuff. About the lightest honeys we produce in Canada are from fireweed and big sagebrush (these are two of those interesting light honeys mentioned above). As a general rule “normal honey,” that is, grocery store white honey, in Canada, is a blend of clover, alfalfa, and sometimes canola honeys. AKA, boring sweet stuff. But if you’re going for consistency in flavour, this is the honey you want to produce. You can make lots of it over quite a large part of Canada, and every batch will be the same.


Now for that “No.1” bit. In Canada there are 3 honey grades, creatively called Nos. 1, 2, and 3, with 1 being the highest grade. No.1 means that the honey has no more than 17.8% moisture, and leaves no residue on a US National Bureau of Standards standard 80-mesh screen. That means the honey has been filtered, even at the coarsest possible level, through an 80-mesh filter (177 microns). This filter will remove wax, parts of bees, etc., from the honey, but will leave most or all of the pollen (pollen grains range from 6 – 200 microns). But remember, this is the maximum pore size that No. 1 honey will have been filtered through. This says nothing of the minimum size, and many grocery store honeys, as mentioned by myself and others in the past couple days are indeed filtered through much finer filters.


Now, let’s talk “Canada.” On a jar of Canadian honey, or a blend of Canadian and imported honeys that was packed in Canada, the word “Canada” goes before the grade. For imported honeys that are resold in their original containers, we put the word “Grade” before the grade (e.g. Grade No. 1 White). That’s it! It doesn’t mean local, it doesn’t even mean 100% Canadian honey. In this case, Made in Canada means packed in Canada. The “Blend of Canadian and Imported Honeys” is usually in fine print, off to the side somewhere that it’s not obvious. If you want to be sure it’s Canadian honey, look for the “100% Pure Canadian Honey” label.


“Honey” means that the product in the jar is food derived from the nectar of blossoms, or from the secretions of or on the living parts of plants, by the work of honey bees. There are some general numbers for things like sugar and moisture content, ash (those interesting extra bits) content, diastase activity, hydrosymethylfurfural content, acid content, etc, but they’re pretty broad. One of the most important regulations, by my accounting, is that the product should be “clean, wholesome, and fit for human consumption.” So, basically, “Honey” on the label means there’s honey in the jar.


“Liquid” honey, in my mind is self explanatory. But maybe only in my mind. For a grade No. 1 honey (be it “Canada” or otherwise) the honey must be clear, bright, uniform in colour, and free from visible crystals. Grades 2 and 3 can have varying degrees of cloudiness and crystallization in liquid honey. In essence, “liquid” describes honey that is not crystallized, while the term “creamed” would appear on a bottle of, well, creamed honey.


“Pure.” My favourite way to have honey. This means really only one thing; the packer has not intentionally added anything. You could buy flavoured honey. Or honey with nuts. Or honey with fruit (especially nice drizzled on good vanilla ice cream). Or whatever you choose. The point is the contents of a jar of pure honey are honey, and only honey. That’s it. We hope. More on contaminants at a later date.


Now notice, nowhere on the label does this describe any “extra” processing the packer may have done. It may have been flash heated and ultrafiltered. Who knows? If the word “pasteurized” appears on the jar, then the honey has been pasteurized at an approved pasteurization facility, but even the word “unpasteurized” doesn’t mean not heated or filtered.


Note: As with all rules, these serve one purpose, and only one purpose. They create a set of minimum processing standards. This means that a consumer doesn’t have to talk to the producer, in order to trust that they’ve met these standards, CFIA does that for them. But if you want honey produced and processed in a specific way, you have to do your own legwork. Commercial honey packers ARE NOT TRYING TO DECIEVE YOU. They are simply trying to provide the consistent product that the majority of consumers’ desire and in doing so are following specific rules for processing standards that are imposed on them. There is nothing inherently wrong with it, and especially nothing evil about it. It is the standard that we, as consumers, have decided on.


Another note: All the “Grades” of honey have associated filters that the honey must pass through. If it was sold in grocery stores, raw honey would have to be labeled “Substandard.” That’s why you don’t see it in there. Oh, and by the way, to be labeled substandard honey it would still have to be honey, including being “clean, wholesome, and fit for human consumption.”


In my opinion, the best way to get a quality product would be to produce it yourself. Otherwise, go to the farmer’s market in your town, and meet your beekeeper. Get off the back of the superstores, they can only carry products that meet certain regulations, and get off the back of commercial packers, they’re doing exactly what’s been asked of them. If you want something different, the legwork is easy enough to do yourself. Then you’ll know for sure how it was produced, and you’ll often be able to try several varieties with their own unique and interesting flavours, for yourself.


If you want to see the Canadian Honey Regulations for yourself, check out CFIA’s page.


Heckle, harass or applaud as you will.




I’m Beekeeper Eric on Facebook


@beekeepereric on twitter, and


BeekeeperEric@gmail.com




Cheers