The nutritional and medicinal benefits of raw honey have been understood over the centuries. Honey in its natural state has been found to contain high levels of:

• Antioxidants
• Nutritional compounds
• Antibacterial properties

However, commercially available honey found in the high street shops have often undergone some form of process to extend shelf life and improve the image of the product that significantly reduces the natural goodness in honey.

For example heating honey to a temperature greater than 40 degrees C makes it easy to pour into jars but irreversibly removes a lot of its natural properties.

Also filtration removes pollens, wax and propolis. Although the honey looks clear and more presentable after this process, most of the goodness has gone.

Exposing the honey to UV radiation will sterilize the honey at the expense of loosing a lot of the natural enzymes, vitamins and amino acids. (Honey stored in glass jars should be stored away from direct sunlight for this reason).

To derive the best from natural honey, we suggest you look for the following:-

Try to locate the location of the apiary that produced the honey. Some of the best honey comes from the Bashkir region of the Ural Mountains, Russia. In this remote area, the bees have access to only natural growing herbs and flowers growing no more than 5km from the hive. (The absence of industrial farming in the region removes the possibility of contamination by pesticides and fertilisers).

High quality honey should display a batch number or similar. This allows traceability throughout manufacturing of the batch used to make the honey and a record of independent laboratory tests (accessible to the consumer).