Greetings
As Bob said, the main reason for ultrafiltering honey in the US is to remove particles. Whether these are pollen, dust, spores, or tiny crystals, they act as seeds to initiate crystallization, so the packers want them out of there. Unfortunately, it is the consumer that wants clear liquid honey and is apt to throw it out if it's "sugared".
Many customers are used to buying and in fact prefer crystallized honey. Some even like to see small amounts of wax and debris as "proof" that the honey is raw and unfiltered.
However, it is unfair and wrong to suggest that filtered honey is "not honey". I happen to prefer unfiltered apple juice but I don't suppose that filtered apple juice is no longer apple juice. Unless it has sugar or corn syrup added, and then I won't buy it. So the key issue should be whether the honey is adulterated, not whether it has traces of pollen.
I would guess the primary route that pollen takes to end up in honey is when beekeepers extract honey from brood combs which have pollen in them. Many beekeepers do not segregate brood combs from honey combs. Also, honey is apt to obtain dust, spores, and pollen from the air, as the supers are trucked many miles over dirt roads.
I would suggest that consumer demand drives the product. Over the years many have lamented at the "uneducated" consumer, but the fact is: no consumer, no sale. If they want the honey to sparkle, then sparkle it must. If they want it cloudy, or rock hard, then that's how they will buy it.
There certainly has always been a small market for gourmet honey, and a huge market for "bakery grade" honey. Back in the 1980s I produced about 40,000 pounds of eucalyptus honey annually. I could barely find a buyer for it. Most went to the government. If it had been Manuka honey I might have gotten rich.
PLB
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