Honey is just honey, right? When you walk into the shop, you are going to grab the brand you’ve always used. It doesn’t much matter which type you get, because it’s just going to flavour your tea, toast, or help out with the baking… Right?
Well, unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Honey is an incredibly diverse and complex food product that can vary quite significantly depending on what you buy, and even where you buy it. That’s why it’s important to know what you are getting when you purchase your honey. So, let’s take a look at honey, why you should be buying natural honey, and what the difference between raw and organic honey is.
Spotting the Real From the Fake
In the UK, and in fact, across most of the world, labeling a product falsely is a crime. So, it’s not legal for companies to label something as honey when it isn’t even honey at all. However, that doesn’t stop manufacturers from trying to get clever or sneaky with their labeling in order to sell you a product you don’t really want.
When going to the shop, you may find yourself simply trying to grab the most convenient option (which often means most cost effective). While there’s nothing wrong with trying to save a pound or two, you need to be aware of what you could be getting. In this case, honey flavoured syrup most likely.
Fake honey can be labeled as honey syrup, or honey product, or any other form of honey with a follow-up addendum. These products are coloured and flavoured like honey, but are actually just a mixture of glucose, corn, beet or inverted sugar syrups, etc,. That’s why you want to look for indicators that the honey is real and 100% honey.
To find the real stuff, you want to look for words such as organic, or pure, or raw. These indicate that what you are buying is in fact real honey, and not syrup. But, that still doesn’t mean that all of these honey products are the same. Because even among real honey, you find differences.
Raw, Organic, or Pure?
Today we are going to mainly focus on the two most nutritious and therefore useful forms of honey, raw and organic. However, we want to take a second to discuss the difference between those and what you see labeled as ‘pure’.
Pure honey is, simply put, 100% honey. It has no additional ingredients such as added sugars or colourings or flavourings. However, to get the distinction of ‘pure’ the honey only has to be 100% honey–it can still be pasteurized. The pasteurization process is where the honey is heated and filtered to give it a longer shelf-life and make it more liquid. But, this does remove a hefty amount of nutrients.
Now, let’s look at your other two options:
Raw Honey
Raw honey is 100% completely pure, unpasteurized honey. It is removed directly from the source and jarred/bottled. This gives it a more natural crystallization and generally a thicker texture until it is melted or heated. Raw honey is packed with nutrients and is excellent for your health.
Organic Honey
Organic honey is essentially the exact same thing as raw honey, with one major distinction. Organic honey means that the bees have never taken pollen from flowers that could have been contaminated with pesticides or any other harsh chemicals. Raw honey does run this risk. So, in essence, organic honey is raw honey taken one step further–it is honey in its more natural state.
Should You Go Raw or Organic?
Honey in its natural form is incredibly healthy for you. It can help to reduce inflammation, risk of disease, provides a ton of antioxidants, and much more. So, it’s important that you are consuming honey that is as natural as possible. Now, one thing to note is that organic honey is very hard to come by locally in the UK. This is due to the fact that local land governing laws make it hard for beekeepers to seclude their hives from flowers that may have been contaminated. So, most organic honey found in the UK is almost always imported.
If you want locally sourced honey in the UK, you want to go for raw. It is the most commonly found form of all natural honey, and will give you all the health benefits and rich flavourings you need. At Autumn Fall Orchards we aim to provide the people of the UK with raw, unfiltered honey that is locally sourced and completely natural. When you go for raw honey, you are getting honey exactly as nature intended it!