Re: Honey regulations
PostPosted:25 Nov 2019, 17:57
Wow, thanks Patrick, that's a brilliant article; except for two aspects .............
Firstly - it reinforces my belief that one should not be labelling one's honey as "Raw Honey" - because it is not a defined category under the reg's.
Two - there's a lot of opinion in there from various producers. "Who do you care what other people think?" Richard Feynman It's the law that matters.
So I am not putting it on my primary label but on a side label - it's additional information and I am happy to continue doing that. I think the honey has to be at least medium strained to remove obvious contaminants.
The temperature one is interesting. I store any supers at hive temperature if I can't extract immediately and that's up to about 34 deg's C (I have a large warming cabinet and very accurate control). I am willing to reheat if it has granulated but only to 42 degC. Higher than that the comb becomes unstable but only for a short time 24hrs- 48hrs max and because I cannot measure HMF.
I am aware that some beekeepers will just say heat the honey out. I have no idea what temperature they are talking about. I just hope they do!
When all is said and done (sorry) and because over-heated honey is pretty obvious, the one's we really have to worry about are those who feed syrup without thinking whether that has got into the "artisan honey" they are selling. Which is why I never feed syrup in a June gap but keep frames of capped honey to one side.....
I think we'll leave it at that before I open another Pandora's box...... (and dinner is being called
Firstly - it reinforces my belief that one should not be labelling one's honey as "Raw Honey" - because it is not a defined category under the reg's.
Two - there's a lot of opinion in there from various producers. "Who do you care what other people think?" Richard Feynman It's the law that matters.
So I am not putting it on my primary label but on a side label - it's additional information and I am happy to continue doing that. I think the honey has to be at least medium strained to remove obvious contaminants.
The temperature one is interesting. I store any supers at hive temperature if I can't extract immediately and that's up to about 34 deg's C (I have a large warming cabinet and very accurate control). I am willing to reheat if it has granulated but only to 42 degC. Higher than that the comb becomes unstable but only for a short time 24hrs- 48hrs max and because I cannot measure HMF.
I am aware that some beekeepers will just say heat the honey out. I have no idea what temperature they are talking about. I just hope they do!
When all is said and done (sorry) and because over-heated honey is pretty obvious, the one's we really have to worry about are those who feed syrup without thinking whether that has got into the "artisan honey" they are selling. Which is why I never feed syrup in a June gap but keep frames of capped honey to one side.....
I think we'll leave it at that before I open another Pandora's box...... (and dinner is being called
