Honey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Honey

Honey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Honey is a sweet
and viscous fluid
produced by bees
and other insects
from the nectar
of flowers. "The
definition of
honey stipulates A capped frame of honeycomb
a pure product
honey comb
that does not
allow for the addition of any other substance. This
includes, but is not limited to, water or other sweeteners," according to the United States
National Honey Board 2003 (http://www.nhb.org/) and other nations' food regulations.

Honey is significantly sweeter than table sugar and has attractive chemical properties for
baking. Honey has a distinctive flavor which leads some people to prefer it over sugar Honey
and other sweeteners.

Liquid honey does not spoil. Because of its high sugar concentration, it kills bacteria by plasmolysis. Natural airborne yeasts
cannot become active in it because the moisture content is too low. Natural, raw honey varies from 14% to 18% moisture
content. As long as the moisture content remains under 18%, virtually no organism can successfully multiply to significant
amounts in honey.

The study of pollens and spores in raw honey (melissopalynology) can determine floral sources of honey. Because bees carry
an electrostatic charge, and can attract other particles, the same techniques of melissopalynology can be used in area
environmental studies of radioactive particles, dust, or particulate pollution.

A main effect of bees collecting nectar to make honey is pollination, which is crucial for flowering plants.

Contents
1 Composition of honey
2 Types of honey
2.1 Honeydew
3 Use of honey
4 Honey in culture and folklore
5 Precautions
6 Honey formation
7 Honey as a product
7.1 Honey processing
7.2 Other descriptions
8 See also

Composition of honey
Honey is a mixture of sugars, water, and other compounds. The specific composition of any batch of honey will depend
largely on the mix of flowers consumed by the bees that produced the honey. Honey has a density of about 1500 kg/m3 (50%
denser than water) which means 12-13 pounds per gallon.

Typical Honey Analysis

Fructose: 38%

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Glucose: 31%
Sucrose: 1%
Water: 17%
Other sugars: 9% (maltose, melezitose)
Ash: 0.17%

Source: Sugar Alliance (http://www.sugaralliance.org/desktopdefault.aspx?page_id=97)

The analysis of the sugar content of honey is used for detecting adulteration.

Types of honey
Main article: Monofloral honey

The flavor and color of the substance is largely determined by the nectar source. Common flavors of honey include orange
blossom honey, tupelo honey, buckwheat honey, clover honey, blackberry, and blueberry honey. In Australia, the most
common honey is from the eucalyptus trees, such as redgum, yellow gum and stringybark. Tasmanian leatherwood honey is
considered a delicacy for its unique flavor.

While it is rare for any honey to be produced exclusively from one floral source, honey will take on the flavor of the
dominant flower in the region. Orange blossom, tupelo, and sourwood are favored types in the United States. Greece is
famous for wild thyme honey, as is France for lavender and acacia honey.

In 2005, New Zealand had 320,000 beehives that produced an average annual crop of 8,600 tonnes of honey. These honeys
cover a huge range of flavour types and properties. From mild to very strong flavoured, light to dark coloured, delicately
perfumed to pungent and even honeys with significant antibacterial properties.

Most commercially available honey is blended. Monofloral honeys are especially valuable on the market. New Zealand is a
major producer of several of these fine monofloral honeys: Manuka Honey, Viper's Bugloss Honey, Nodding Thistle Honey,
Kamahi Honey, Honeydew Honey, Tawari Honey, Rewarewa Honey or Thyme Honey. Another is Rata Honey, considered
by many to be the best of New Zealand Honeys. It is very white in colour, has a subtle, mild yet rich and distinctive flavour -
not overly sweet, almost salty.

Honeydew

Instead of taking nectar, bees can take honeydew, which appears similar to honey and consists of the sweet secretions of
aphids or other plant sap-sucking insects. Most important of these is the aphid Marchalina hellenica which feeds on the sap
of the Turkish Pine. Honeydew from pine forests has a "piney" taste and is prized for medicinal use in Europe and Turkey.
Bees collecting this resource have to be fed protein supplements, as honeydew lacks the protein-rich pollen accompaniment
gathered from flowers. In New Zealand honeydew nectar is produced from a small, scale insect (Ultracoelostoma assimile)
living in the bark of two of New Zealand's beech forests, mostly black beech (black from the sooty mould growing on the
surplus nectar covering the trunks and branches) and to a lesser extent, red beech. In the early morning sunlight, the droplets
of nectar glisten like the morning dew, giving the name honeydew.

Germany's "Black Forest" is a well known source of honeydew produced honeys.

Honeydew honey has full flavour aroma, is heady, almost pungent and malty with a thick red amber color.

Honeydew has strong markets in some areas, but in many areas beekeepers are disappointed with a honeydew crop as they
are unable to market the stronger flavored product. Honeydew has a much larger proportion of indigestibles than light
honeys, which can cause dysentery resulting in the death of colonies in areas with cold winters. Good beekeeping
management requires the removal of honeydew prior to winter in colder areas.

Use of honey
The main uses of honey are in cooking, baking, spreading on bread or toast, and as an addition to various beverages such as
tea. Because honey is hygroscopic (drawing moisture from the air), a small quantity of honey added to a pastry recipe will
retard staling. Raw honey also contains enzymes that help in its digestion, several vitamins and antioxidants.

Honey is the main ingredient in the alcoholic beverage mead, which is also known as honey wine, and methelgin.

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Honey is used in traditional folk medicine and apitherapy, and is an excellent natural preservative.

Most vegans consider honey to be an animal product and avoid using it, instead choosing sweetening alternatives such as
golden syrup.

Without commercial beekeeping, large-scale fruit and vegetable farming and some of the seed industry would be incapable
of sustaining themselves, since many crops are pollinated by migratory beekeepers who contract their bees for that purpose.

In ancient history, the Egyptians and Middle-Eastern people also used honey for embalming the dead. However only rich
and powerful people had the luxury of this type of funeral.

Honey is also very efficacious at healing skin tissue, especially wounds such as burns. Raw honey and Manuka honey are
better suited for healing skin than "regular"/processed honey. Manuka honey has even been proven in clinical trials to be
superior to silver sulfadiazine in the healing of burns.

Honey in culture and folklore

In many cultures, honey has associations that go far beyond its use as a food. In language and literature, religion and folk
belief, honey is frequently a symbol or talisman for sweetness of every kind.

The Old Testament contains many references to honey as a symbol for all that is pleasant and desirable. For example, the
book of Exodus famously describes the Promised Land as a 'land flowing with milk and honey' (33:3). So important is honey
in Jewish tradition that some scholars believe an exception was made for it in the dietary laws: Insects and their products are
normally considered unclean, but honey is kosher. The word "honey" appears 61 times in the King James Version of the
Bible.

Honey plays an important role in the festival of Madhu Purnima, celebrated by Buddhists in India and Bangladesh. The day
commemorates Buddha's making peace among his disciples by retreating into the wilderness. The story goes that while he
was there, a monkey brought him honey to eat. On Madhu Purnima, Buddhists remember this act by giving honey to monks.
The monkey's gift is frequently depicted in Buddhist art.

In some parts of Greece, it was formerly the custom for a bride to dip her fingers in honey and make the sign of the cross
before entering her new home. This was meant to ensure sweetness in her married life, especially in her relationship with her
mother-in-law.

In popular culture, bears are frequently depicted as eating honey, even though most bears actually eat a wide variety of
foods. Where bears and honeybees exist in the same area, a number of hives are destroyed each year by bears, who are
primarily seeking the larvae of the bees which are within the brood frames, but they will also eat honey. Honey is sometimes
sold in a bear-shaped jar. Teddy bears are almost invariably associated with honey, possibly because of the influence of
Winnie-the-Pooh.

Many people believe that honey is more wholesome or healthful than refined sugar, although most nutritionists say that all
sweeteners are pretty much alike. Honey-based sweets are often sold as health food.

'Honey,' along with variations like 'honey bun' and 'honeypot,' has become a term of endearment in most of the
English-speaking world. In some places it is used for loved ones; in others, such as the American South, it is used when
addressing casual acquaintances or even strangers.

Precautions
Honey is not always healthful. Because it is gathered from flowers in the wild, there are situations in which it may be toxic.
(See: Grayanotoxin.) Rhododendrons, Mountain Laurels and azaleas have nectar that is poisonous to humans though
harmless to bees. The shape of the Azalea flower, however, makes access to nectar difficult for honeybees. And during the
time at which Azaleas bloom, there are usually other flowers available which are more appealing to the honeybee. So lethal
honey is rarely encountered.

Nonetheless, honey, corn syrup and other natural sweeteners are a potential and acute threat to infants. Harmless to adults
because of a mature person's stomach acidity, botulinum spores are widely present in the environment and are among the few
bacteria that can survive in honey. Since an infant's digestive juices are non-acidic, ingestion of honey creates an ideal
medium for botulinum spores to grow and produce sufficient levels of toxins to cause infant botulism. For this reason, it is
advised that neither honey, nor any other sweetener, be given to children under the age of 18 months. Once a child is eating

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solid food, the digestive juices are acidic enough to prevent the growth of the spores.

Honey formation
Honey is laid down by bees as a food source. In cold weather or when food sources are scarce, bees use their stored honey as
their source of energy. By contriving the bee swarm to make its home in a hive, mankind has been able to semi-domesticate
the insects. In the hive there are three types of bee: the single queen bee, a seasonally variable number of drone bees to
fertilize new queens and some 20,000 to 40,000 worker bees. The worker bees raise larvae and collect the nectar that will
become honey in the hive. They go out, collect the sugar-rich flower nectar and return to the hive. As they leave the flower,
bees release nasonov pheromones. These enable other bees to find their way to the site by smell. Honeybees also release
nasonov pheromones at the entrance to the hive, which enables returning bees to return to the proper hive. In the hive the
bees use their honey stomachs to ingest and regurgitate the nectar a number of times until it is partially digested. It is then
stored in the honeycomb. Nectar is high in both water content and natural yeasts which, unchecked, would cause the sugars
in the nectar to ferment. After the final regurgitation, the honeycomb is left unsealed - bees inside the hive "fan" their wings
creating a strong draught across the honeycomb. This enhances evaporation of much of the water from the nectar. The
reduction in water content, which raises the sugar concentration, prevents fermentation. Ripe honey, as removed from the
hive by the beekeeper, has a long shelf life and will not ferment.

The beekeeper encourages overproduction of honey within the hive so that the excess can be taken without endangering the
bees. When sources of foods for the bees are short the beekeeper may have to feed the bees other forms of sugar so they can
survive.

Honey as a product
Honey processing

Comb honey A popular honey product. The honey is sold still in the wax comb. Comb honey was once packaged by
installing wooden framework in special supers, but this labor intensive method is dying, and being replaced by plastic
rings or cartridges. After removal from the hive, a clear cover is usually fitted onto the cartridge so customers can see
the product.
Raw Honey Honey as it exists in the beehive or as obtained by extraction, settling or straining without adding heat.
Raw honey contains some pollen and may contain small particles of wax. Local raw honey is sought after by allergy
sufferers as the pollen impurities lessen the sensitivity to hay fever.
Chunk Honey Honey packed in widemouth containers consisting of one or more pieces of comb honey surrounded
by extracted liquid honey. This type is preferred in the US South.
Strained Honey or Filtered Honey Honey which has been passed through a mesh material to remove particulate
material (pieces of wax, propolis, other defects) without removing pollen. Preferred by the health food trade - it has a
cloudy appearance due to the included pollen, but it also tends to crystallize more quickly than ultrafiltered honey.
Ultrafiltered Honey Honey processed by very fine filtration under high pressure to remove all extraneous solids and
pollen grains. Ultrafiltered honey is very clear and has a longer shelf life, because it crystallizes more slowly.
Preferred by the supermarket trade.

Other descriptions

Blended Honey A homogeneous mixture of two or more honeys differing in floral source, color, flavor, density or
geographic origin.
Churned Honey or Cremed Honey See whipped honey.
Crystallized Honey Honey in which some of the glucose content has spontaneously crystallized from solution as the
monohydrate. Also called "Granulated Honey."
Honey Fondant See whipped honey.
Spun Honey See whipped honey.

In addition, Organic Honey is honey produced, processed, and packaged in accordance with national regulations, and
certified as such by some government body or an independent organic farming certification organization.

See also
Bangladesh Honey Wikibooks Cookbook has more about
Finland Honey this subject:

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glucose Honey
honey flow Wikimedia Commons has media
list of cocktails related to:
list of recipes Honey
nectar
Pitcairn Island Honey
Philippines Honey
royal jelly
US honey production

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Category: Honey

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