White stuff in honey. What is this?
First of all look at the pictures. That is the stuff we will talk about.
I am sure that you have faced jar of honey with white stuff along the walls and on the surface of the honey. What is it? Is it safe to eat? Or maybe it’s dangerous to your health?
The beekeepers love to say that it is frost or they call it blooming honey. However, some can say: frozen, sour, heated, fake honey etc.
So what are these white crystals really? And why sometimes they appeares and sometimes do not? Here we have to return to the honey composition. Let’s recall that the main components of honey is fructose and glucose. Glucose has the potential to start crystallisation earlier than fructose. Glucose settles on the walls of the jar by larger or smaller crystalline aggregations. And only after that fructose crystallizes, and honey finally solidifies.
Is the blooming honey good?
Well, we agreed that it was glucose. What’s the point? Is it good? I would say neither bad nor good. It is an integral part of honey (natural only!) and no matter whether you swallow it consciously or blindly. As far as I know, glucose is absorbed by human organism directly and fructose is transformed to glucose first of all. So, if you want to absorb honey more quickly, scrape off those white crystals :). Not in vain the soldiers in WWII before the attack was given not only alcohol but also glucose…
Well, but I do not want to finish at this point. Let’s see what it means if there is no frost in the honey. This can only happen in two cases: either there is no glucose in the honey, or the honey storage conditions were such that glucose did not crystallize apart from fructose. We will not discuss the first case, because such stuff can not be called as honey at all. No matter if it’s sugar syrup or overheated honey – it can no longer be called as honey. The second case is much more frequent. For example, if you do not give quietness during the crystallization of honey, you will not see any white crystals in the jar. The best example is creamed honey. It is always homogeneous, without any adornments, although glucose is present in it. Sometimes the glucose adornments do not appear even when the honey crystallizes gently, but at a very constant temperature and preferably in darkness. Then the process of crystallisation is slower and the honey can remain without visible signs of glucose.
To sum it up, we can say that blooming honey is really natural and of good quality, and honey without signs of glucose can be good, and maybe not very good – depends on how much you trust the seller.
And now, if you have blooming honey on the shelf, just make sure that the glucose is really sweet. Do not have such honey? We have! Contact us!:)