At 08:45 PM 4/8/98 -0400, you wrote:
 
>
>     At times I have to WARM my honey to make the bottling process
> easier....am I in turn pasteurizing my honey at the same time??
 
 
Hi Jeff,
 
Absolutely not! More times then not you are warming the honey to what others
consider normal room temperatures such as in the southwest and west which is
why we use little heat in our honey houses. Its already too hot to be
comfortable in our inside work environment.
 
>
>     The reason I ask is because I have supplied a well know University with
> some honey to be used in a study to determine if daily honey use will indeed
> help those with allergies. They have since asked me if the honey supplied
was
> indeed pasteurized and not truly RAW (from comb to jar) honey. I told them
> that it was not  pasteurized. which in turn they claimed that because it did
> not crystallize that it was pasteurized.
 
 
First I would not have anything to do with this university or any work they do
with honey as their knowledge or better stated prejudices on honey is such
that
any work they do would be tainted and unreliable. They need to educate
themselves on the basic information on honey and you won't live long enough to
see that happen.
 
The crystallization of honey is due to the difference in the balance of sugars
in certain varieties of honey and has nothing to do with heating or
pasteurization at all....Heating honey to melt the crystals will delay the
process but not for more then a few months or weeks if the jar is opened
and it
is a fast granulating honey such as Cotton. Heating and filtration using a
filter aid will extend the shelf life several months longer then heating alone
because the filter aid is used to remove the microscopic crystals needed to
start the crystallization process.  The fact is that most honey that is
sold in
the US as crystallized, processed, creamed, or spreadable is itself
pasteurized
before seeding and placed in a temperature controlled environment to
re-crystallize which takes several weeks. Some honey such as Sage will never
crystallize even when seeded with honey crystals even when never heated, and
some other honeys will only partially crystallize making a unsightly mess. A
least one well know California honey, Blue Curl,  will crystallize as it is
extracted and build up on the sides of the extractor until it can no longer
spin without a good cleaning. And if this honey is green or contains high
moisture it then will ferment in the honey drums, having been known to  blow
the tops off of 55 gal drums when kept in the sun for just a few hours.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
Los Banos, California
 
(c)Permission is given to copy this document
in any form, or to print for any use.
 
(w)OPINIONS are not necessarily facts. USE  AT OWN RISK!