
Honey Production and Processing
0003 To summarize, foraging honeybees ingest nectar and
honeydew and store it in their honey sac. Pollen is
also collected, and this provides the protein portion of
the honeybee diet. Pollen, however, is not integral
to the production of honey. The honey sac weighs
40–70 mg when full and can account for more than
90% of the weight of the bee. Enzymes are secreted
and mixed with the sac contents. Upon returning to
the hive, the contents are passed on to the house bees,
who carry out the ripening process. This consists of
alternately expelling and ingesting the honey sac fluid
for 15–20 min. When the nectar has lost about half of
its moisture, small droplets of this semiripened honey
are deposited in the comb cells. In 1–3 days, numer-
ous enzyme-mediated changes will have occurred and
honey density attained. The cells are then capped over
with wax and the honey stored as food. Compos-
itional changes continue during ripening, the most
prominent result being the production of an increas-
ingly complex array of sugars. This is largely a result
of continuing enzyme activity. An enzymatic process
is also employed to produce hydrogen peroxide, in
order to stabilize the honey against microbial growth.
0004 The primary objectives of commercial honey pro-
cessing include maintaining the desired physical state,
be it liquid or finely granulated, and keeping it free of
fermentation. Methods for accomplishing the object-
ives are well established and have been used for many
years. Beekeepers remove the hive units (supers) from
the colony and then remove the wax cappings by
mechanical slicing. The honey is then centrifugally
extracted from the wax comb. Raw honey contains
pollen, some wax, sugar-tolerant yeasts, and often
some crystals of glucose monohydrate. Flavor and
aroma are optimal just after processing, but further
treatment is required before large-scale marketing.
The process of pressure filtration is used to produce
liquid honey, after controlled heating to destroy
yeasts and to dissolve sugar crystals. The application
of heat to honey requires careful control so that the
color, flavor, and aroma of honey are not impaired.
Honey is sold in the liquid form, in a finely granu-
lated form known as honey spread or finely
granulated honey, and as comb honey. The require-
ments for the stability of these forms are increasingly
stringent, as honey has become a world commodity
available in markets throughout the year.
0005 World honey production has increased steadily
and, in the year 2000, was estimated to be about
1.2 million tonnes. About 25% of this production is
the object of international trade. The three largest
honey-exporting countries are China, Argentina,
and Mexico, and the largest importers are Germany,
Japan, and the USA. The USA is the leading consumer
of honey, and honey consumption in Asia has in-
creased substantially in recent years, especially in
Japan and China.
General Composition
0006Honey samples vary in composition, and this vari-
ability reflects contributions of the plant source of
nectar, beekeeping practices, and climate and envir-
onmental conditions. Honeys representing many
floral sources in the USA have been analyzed, and
the average compositions are listed in Table 1.
Many honeys from other countries have been
analyzed and generally found to provide similar
values. There is wide variability among all the honey
components. Among the major components, how-
ever, fructose levels exceed those of glucose, the only
exceptions being dandelion and blue curls honeys.
Moisture
0007Moisture content is one of the most important char-
acteristics of honey, as it influences the keeping qual-
ity, granulation, and body. The natural moisture of
honey in the comb is that remaining from the nectar
after it is ripened by the bees. The amount of moisture
is a function of factors involved in ripening, such
as environmental conditions, original moisture con-
tent of the nectar, and strength of the honeybee
colony. Normal ripened honey has a moisture content
below 18.6%, and when the moisture content
exceeds that level, honeys are liable to ferment. This
can occur if the count of ubiquitous osmophilic
yeasts is sufficiently high. After extraction of the
honey from the comb, its moisture content may
change, depending on the conditions of storage.
Low moisture levels can result in the crystallization
of glucose, a process termed granulation. Few
tbl0001Table 1 Average composition of honey
a
Property Average Range
Moisture 17.2 12.2–22.9
Fructose 38.4 30.9–44.3
Glucose 30.3 22.9–40.7
Sucrose 1.3 0.2–7.6
‘Maltose’
a
7.3 2.7–16.0
Higher sugars 1.4 0.1–3.8
Ash 0.17 0.02–1.03
Nitrogen 0.04 0.0–0.13
pH 3.91 3.4–6.1
a
Data for 490 samples; all values in percentages except for pH; ‘maltose’
includes all reducing disaccharides.
From White JW, Jr. (1962) Composition of American Honeys. Technical
Bulletin No. 1261. US Department of Agriculture.
3126 HONEY