>Interesting article on how common ultra filtered honey has become thats
>being sold by big packers.

As I said at the start of the discussion pollen is very easy to remove from
honey by pressure filtering.

large packers feel honey with pollen crystallizes faster than honey without
pollen.

Final filtering honey is done for store honey sales. Most honey sold in bulk
is unprocessed.

Except for honey at times from China. China has bragged about their
*ultra filtering* machine and have sent sales reps to try and sell the
machine to U.S. packers.

The * machine * is said to even pull chemicals and antibiotics from honey
(discussion in archives) .

Honey refused on arrival from China with trace amounts of chloramphenical
(spelling?) and sent back was said to have been run through the machine and
then sold back into the U.S. market (source ABF & AHPA members).

Both groups tried to get honey *ultra filtered* by the China machine
declared not really honey on the basis ( I believe from memory?) water was
added and then removed. As far as I understand honey processed by the China
machine can not be sold as *pure honey* in the U.S. *but* can be imported
for cooking and baking.

In extreme cases packers will add diatomaceous earth (D.E.) into honey
waiting to be filtered and I was told the *contaminates* ( pollen?) attach
to the D> E. and then are better final filtered.

I have toured many large plants and heard the presentations.

I personally prefer minimal processing but a few big packers pack (from
presentations)  around  60 55 gallon drums a week. Shelf life is their 
biggest
concern.

bob

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