Thanks for buying a jar of honey! Here’s some information that you might find useful…
Remember, if you have any questions about your honey that aren’t covered here, your local beekeeper will probably be more than happy to tell you how it’s produced.
Did you know that honey is a super-saturated solution of sugar in water (with bonus plant bits)?
What you’re experiencing is something known as “granulation”. Granulation occurs because a super-saturated solution isn’t a stable state for the solution to be in. Simply put, there is too much sugar in the water for it to remain in the water. Granulation is not a benchmark of authenticity, as fake honeys will also granulate.
Some like the taste/texture of granulated honey, so give it a go! Not only do different sugars granulate at different rates, but the sugars dissolve into saliva at different rates. A runny honey might taste very different when it’s granulated.
If you don’t like the taste or texture, you can place your jar in a bowl of hot water. Water from the hot tap is fine - you’re aiming for water not hot enough to scald you, but hotter than warm. Leave it there until all the sugars have dissolved again. You can do this as many times as needed, as the honey will granulate again if left to it’s own devices.
When the sugars in honey granualte (see the above answer), they granualte at different rates. Some sugars will settle at the bottom causing a lighter appearance. It’s nothing to worry about, but you can warm it up to make it runny again if you want to.
During extraction, honey comes flying out of thousands of cells in the comb onto the walls of the extractor. These threads of honey overlap eachother and trap tiny bubbles of air. After this, the honey is left to sit for a few days for the bubbles to rise to the surface. Due to the surface tension and viscocity of honey, these bubbles simply don’t pop! As such, a nice head of foam can gather.
This foam is okay to eat - it’s just honey with air in it.
See the above answer. If your honey is bubbling alot, or the jar is pressurised, it’s probably fermenting. This shouldn’t occur if the honey has the correct concentration of sugars to water, but it can occur after granulation.
Those specks you’re seeing are either: pollen, wax, or propolis.
Unlike supermarket Honey, “raw” local honey is only filtered through mesh filters after extraction. These meshes aren’t small enough to remove all the tiny specs of these things, but because they are lighter than honey, they tend to float to the surface. You don’t find this in supermarket honeys, as they are filtered with industrial equipment. With all that said, these are completely safe to eat.
Time to get serious - we’re going to talk about Botulism.
Botulism is an illness caused by toxins produced by a bacteria called Clostridium botulinum. Clostridium botulinum is found in abundance in soil. C. botulinum is a spore forming bacteria - when it’s exposed to harsh conditions such as a lack of available water, heat, or acidity, it turns into a sort of bacterial seed, known as a spore. When conditions improve, the seed germinates back into a working bacteria and will begin multiplying. When this bacteria multiplies in an oxygen-free environment, it produces a toxin called Botulinum Neurotoxin (the primary ingredient in Botox).
When nectar if foraged by bees, or when frames are placed outside of the hive, spores of C. botulinum can get onto the frames. When the bacteria is in honey, the “Water Activity” (available water) of the honey prevents the bacteria from germinating and multiplying. If it is fed to infants, the water in their digestive tracts dilutes the honey and allows the bacteria to multiply.
As adults, we have acid in our stomachs and digestive tracts that prevent C. botulinum from multiplying and producing harmful toxins. Infants don’t have an acidified digestive tract, so the bacteria can germinate and mulitply in their oxygen-free stomachs, causing Infant Botulism.
Never give honey to children under one year old!
Regulations require that food labels are packaged in metric, rather than imperial, measurements. However, honey jars are manufactured in ounces and pounds.
Some beekeepers include the ounces on the jar as well as grams.