Canada’s honey producers and food inspectors are debating whether to stop using the words pasteurized and unpasteurized on honey packaging.
“Honey has a high sugar content, which doesn’t support the growth of bacteria,” said Heather Clay, executive secretary for the Canadian Honey Council in Calgary.
“Despite this fact, many medical professionals mistakenly think that pasteurization of honey is important to kill bacteria.”
The need to pasteurize honey is confused with the potential of infant botulism. Botulism spores are hardy organisms found throughout the environment in soil, on unprocessed agricultural products, corn syrup and occasionally in honey, whether pasteurized or not.
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Infants under one year of age sometimes lack a mature enough intestine to digest these spores. The botulism produces a toxin that can make a baby sick so honey is not recommended for infants.
“Pasteurization of honey is a marketing issue – not a health issue,” said Clay.
“The heating process in pasteurization extends the shelf life of honey by destroying the natural seed crystals that cause granulation and fermentation. Natural sugar-tolerant yeasts are present in honey and they will grow if the moisture level is more than 18 percent and storage temperature is too warm.
“Honey is more likely to ferment after it has granulated. A pasteurization process is used to kill the sugar-tolerant yeasts to prevent granulation and fermentation.”
In the bulk honey industry, where packers want the product to remain liquid for a long time, pasteurization is necessary. Commercial equipment is made to heat honey quickly to 71 C for four minutes and then cool it quickly through a heat exchanger.
Without specialized equipment, beekeepers run the risk of lowering honey quality.
Many producers prefer to pack honey that has not been exposed to significant heat.
“The problem lies in (that) the term unpasteurized and the term natural is misleading as it can mean anything as long as it isn’t synthetic,” said Clay.
“While the term unpasteurized appeals to certain customers and there is a growing market for this natural product, many consumers think that the word unpasteurized suggests that there is a health issue with honey, which simply is not the case.”
The council is working with the federal food inspection agency’s labeling review committee to decide whether to abandon the term in favor of a more appropriate label.
Anyone with suggestions on the issue should contact a provincial honey council delegate or the head office in Calgary at 403-208-7141 or send e-mail to chc-ccm@telusplanet.net.
More information on honey and on the council is available on the Canadian Honey Council’s website at www.honeycouncil.ca/.
