> As food for thought, what kind of fat do you put in your grease paddies,
> these turning rancid may also be a source of butyric acid contamination,
> bees may even produce it as a metabolite (just a thought)!

If one is using vegetable shortening ("Crisco") patties, they cannot produce
butyric acid or butyric anhydride as they age and degrade.  Aging and breakdown
of vegetable shortening patties results in an odor that, to me, smells like
cheap paraffin candles, but most people don't smell much of anything.
A better way to tell that a patty is "too old" is to poke it - old patties get
hard.

> I am not familiar with what the American tolerance for butyric acid
> in honey is...
> ...The point I'm making is that this is a naturally occurring substance, a
> detection by itself is not necessarily an indication of bad management...

Beekeepers have been misled.
Deliberately.

Butyric acid is NOT the same as butyric anhydride.
"Bee-Go", "Honey Robber", and (in Canada) "Bee Repel" are butyric ANHYDRIDE.

The equations for these two different chemicals are:

      Butyric ACID (CH3 CH2 CH2-COOH)

      Butyric ANHYDRIDE (CH3 CH2 CH2 CO)2 O

Note the classic "carboxyl group" on the end of the equation for
Butyric Acid, the "COOH".  (Dim memories of chemistry class may
be causing pain for some readers, so I'll stop there.)

To further confuse matters, some people use the term "Butanoic"
rather than "Butyric".

Not knowing the difference is not the beekeeper's fault.  The parties who
make and sell butyric anhydride to beekeepers have spent over 2 decades piling
on so many half-truths and evasions packaged in disingenuous phrasings as to
erase the customary distinction between mere deceit and criminal fraud.

The net result is that even groups with well-educated staff who would know
the difference if they thought about it for a second make the error of
using the names "butyric acid" and "butyric anhydride" as if they were synonyms
for the same chemical.  Here is one example, the Canadian Honey Council:
http://www.honeycouncil.ca/users/folder.asp?FolderID=1292

But don't blame them - this is what happens when for-profit companies scheme
to sell foul-smelling, toxic, non-food-grade chemicals and con beekeepers into
using them in close contact or direct contact with their honey crops, sold as
food.
To convince people do something that makes no sense, one must mislead.

Butyric acid does not repel bees, which should be obvious as it is found
in honey in trace amounts.  Butyric anhydride can repel bees, and every
other carbon-based lifeform.  :)

While any anhydride will, in theory, break down over time through hydroxylation
and oxidation with the air, these oxidation processes are frustrated in the case

of uptake in honey, as honey contains a noticeable lack of free oxygen
molecules,
only a limited amount of water, and has a habit of absorbing odors.

So, while natural butyric acid can be found in honey in trace amounts, and
while butyric acid is the natural byproduct of events like butter going
rancid, this is not the same thing as butyric anhydride, which smells much
worse than any example of rancid butter one might encounter, and has no
natural source.

> Has anyone done any research comparing butyric acid levels in fumed and
> unfumed honey?

The only reason that labs have not differentiated between:

 a) butyric acid, which certainly may be of natural origin if
    found in honey in tiny amounts

 b) (Unoxidized/unhyrolyzed) butyric anhydride, not of natural origin

in honey is that no one has asked them to do so.

As an easy "home test kit", most noses can detect butyric anhydride at
about 10 parts per million, so if it can be smelled at all, it is likely
10ppm or higher.

More than 10ppm, and it starts to gross people out.

After a few hours, your nose becomes overloaded, and you "get used to"
the smell.  You can't smell it.  Everyone else can, but you can't.
Most people walking into your honey house or super storage facility in
winter or early spring can smell the butyric anhydride you used LAST year.
Some can smell it from the driveway.

The "good news" for those whose reward for all their hard work is a warming
room full of supers that smell more like toxic waste than a gourmet delicacy
is that you can heat your honey to within an inch of its life, and "cook down"
all the butyric anhydride, and end up with nothing more than darker honey
with a suspiciously high level of butyric acid.

But this isn't really fooling anyone either.


                            jim

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::